Naruto: The Dark Knight REMIXED
by Kurogane7
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto has awakened the Curse of Kazan, and now he must find a way to master the Curse before it consumes him. With GSD and Yamato training him, what effect will he have on the Elemental Nations? Major crossover with Dungeon Fighter Online, very minor crossovers with other series. Slayer-class Naruto, Naru/Harem, gender-bending. less bashing. OC's included. Rated T for now.
1. Awakening

**_A/N: Hello again ladies and gentlemen. This here is the rewrite of "Naruto: The Dark Knight", and with less bashing. Keep in mind, I am still having this to be a harem story…rest assured, I will not make it so large as to be unreasonable like in "First Male Nin", but it will still be quite large. I am also taking possible gender-bender targets into consideration…but Haku will most definitely be a target (and the possible return of the Uchiha twins). With that said, do read and review, would you kindly? And please, oh please, no 'I don't like this story, so I'm not reading it anymore', 'this story sucks', or even 'sorry, I'm done'…if you don't like this story, then do the smart thing and don't bother reading it in the first place! Or at the very least tell me what you don't like about it so that maybe I can fix it in the future (which is an even smarter idea)—therefore I must respectfully ask that you don't waste my time and your brain cells on trolling._**

...

[Forests of Konohagakure no Sato, night time]

Ah yes, it was a very lovely night for a walk in the woods; the indigo of the sky added contrast to the silvery light of the full moon that shone through the branches of the trees, while adding highlights to patches of clouds that threatened to block it out. A slight breeze rushed through the dense foliage and the grass of the clearing, for a relaxing chorus of rustling vegetation; this was the exact moment that a now ten-year-old Uzumaki Naruto found to be very wonderful as he looked up at the moon; well, whenever he was not out and about pulling pranks on people that had deserved it, and maybe the pining for a little attention here and now. So far, things were good enough in the past few days since he joined the Ninja Academy that he was able to forget the glares that were fired off in his direction once or twice throughout the day.

Day one of the positive turn for his life started in what might possibly be the most fun day of his life; and it all began when some asshole decided to put himself on Naruto's shit list by calling him a bastard more than a week ago. _'Served that dickhead right for that low blow!'_ he thought to himself as he remembered the day; after days of planning beforehand, all it took to put that guy in his place was a well-placed tripwire (found in a general store), a generous amount of tar, and a few sliced-open feather pillows that he 'borrowed' from other people on his shit list to turn the asshole into an over-sized chicken. That wasn't even the end of it, because Naruto watched him stepping into a well-hidden snare that dragged him by the ankle to hang him upside down and outside a butcher shop next to the other chickens about to be de-feathered. How was he to know that this would be the start of the good times to come? And with Kiba and Akamaru from the Academy eventually joining in on the pranking spree it gradually became, it only made the day better as the three of them had managed to prank out some of the snootier villagers! He was surprised however, that the two of them had gone on that long without being caught, and that the Snake-masked ANBU agent pretty much defended the three of them, which left them off the hook, for now.

The next day, he rescued that weird white-eyed girl from bullies. Those jerks thought they were so tough, ganging up on a harmless little girl. Unsurprisingly, he took his fair share of licks in the fight, but at least he managed to pay them back with interest for what they'd been doing to the girl by beating up their leader, like that dog-masked ANBU agent taught him to do whenever he had to deal with bullies. After beating up the bully leader and dispersing his fellow gang of morons, Naruto had earned himself a friend in the shy, white-eyed girl (whom he later learned was named Hyūga Hinata). As he was doing stuff that seemed to cheer Hinata up from whatever depression she seemed to be feeling, a grown-up with eyes like hers walked up and gently led her away by the hand, giving him a cautionary glance. True, it was depressing that a girl that he was beginning to be friends with was taken away so soon, but he felt he did good in rescuing her and in cheering her up. _'Maybe I can play with her next time.'_

Earlier today was probably the start of the best day so far, comparable to the Ichiraku family giving him a free all-you-can-eat ticket at their ramen stand a little earlier for dinner. Tenten's dad finally found some free time to spend with him and his daughter. The three of them went to the theater to watch a movie about a samurai travelling with his son in a baby cart as they travelled the land for revenge. He'd always liked the movies, especially the ones about badass swordsmen and the battles they fought: like the adventures of the blind masseur who fought against yakuza and government officials to get justice for the people who couldn't fight back, and the one about the rōnin who got two yakuza gangs in the same town to fight each other before finishing off the surviving gang.

Yeah, it was overall a pretty good few days, and his birthday was by far the best day of all. Sure, no birthday party waiting for him, but at least he got to spend his time with people he actually cared about later on in the day. Although the presents he received at his doorstep earlier in the morning seemed to remind him that there were people who cared: a frog wallet; a basic survival guide; a kunai with a longer, curved, and double-edged blade that was still usable in one hand; and a book of basic jutsu with a written note attached to it making him promise to study hard every day. None of these gifts had a tag attached to them, but he stored them all away for later. The kunai on the other hand, he chose to carry in its sheath on the small of his back…better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it, right?

"Oi! Kunimitsu! You hear about what happened earlier?" slurred a voice from afar, prompting Naruto to quietly run towards its source. As he quietly peeked out from behind a tree, he saw that the owner of the voice was a fat and inebriate shinobi by the name of Yamada Hiromu. Not a big name to be sure, otherwise the other shinobi and kunoichi would've been respectful to him, but Naruto knew that he was plenty competent in spite of his obesity. The friend he spoke of was the skinnier man sitting across from him that obviously needed more meat on his bones, as he looked more like a skeleton than a man. Manji Kunimitsu was never too far away from his friend Hiromu, the two of them being by far one of the best 'Naruto-catchers' in the village. The 'Hard Guys', as he had taken to calling them, were by far the most difficult people to outrun in the village, right next to Iruka-sensei who was number one.

"Who hasn't?" added Kunimitsu, the slight tinge of red his skin took showing his drunkenness as he downed another shot of sakè, "Catching that Taki shinobi was nothing but good luck on our part. Shame he was DOA in the hospital—although he was probably lucky that he died, and that Hazama-sensei was not the one who was assigned to him. If that man were successful in saving him, then I'm pretty sure that that sadist Ibiki in T&I would've had a day interrogating him."

_'This is interesting,'_ thought Naruto, _'I've never heard of Ibiki, but I do know that Hazama-sensei is a really good doctor, probably the only doctor who really wanted to treat me. All that aside, this is probably a very good chance to practice on my escape techniques…that, and I'll probably get to see a battle up close.'_

That said, he made it a point to slip away quietly; no good if the two of them managed to catch up to him that quickly.

…

[Elsewhere in Konoha]

All was quiet in Konoha, not a vendor in sight, with only the chirping of crickets and the buzzing of cicadas. The monotony of the sound was broken up by a loud 'whoosh' followed by a silent 'thump' as a lone ANBU agent with a dog mask landed on one foot. It'd been a long day, and Inu was very tired. The mission in question was a cleanup job…a bunch of genin were ambushed and robbed by a gang of bandits; the trouble was that the bandits had a bunch of mid-level nuke-nin in their midst, and their leader was a rōnin of some skill. The pay for the mission alone was lousy, but that was fine, because the heads that were turned in were enough to make this job a B-ranked mission.

_'Well, another day, another ryo.'_ He thought to himself, _'all I need to do is to check up on Naruto before catching up in Icha Icha Paradise. Hopefully, he'll enjoy a gift that he'd be getting a lot of use out of. That kunai is not very aerodynamic for throwing, but it's pretty useful as both a tool and a weapon, which is a must for someone who is going to go through survival training.'_

As he walked around the town, taking in the sights, Inu caught something that was out of place; a lone figure was wandering the streets. There was something off about that person. _'What is that guy doing, dallying about the streets of this village at night? Whatever it is, I'm following him.'_

And so he moved quietly to mask his approach and to get a closer look from around a corner: a hooded cloak obscured everything to identify the person, but his posture belonged to that of a seasoned warrior, which was contradicted by the slight wariness in his step, telling the ANBU agent that this was probably a blind man. In any case, he'd learned the hard way long ago that one should never underestimate a blind man.

He watched as the blind man stopped in front of the movie theater to kneel down and reach with his right hand to brush up the air into his face. The quiet sound of his nostrils sniffing up the subtle scent registered in Inu's highly-trained ears. "I know you're following me, Shinobi-san," said the figure as he stood up, revealing himself to be an old man somewhere around in his seventies, "I truly understand why you are doing so, but I am in a hurry to find someone. Go home, and forget you ever saw me."

Before he could reveal himself, Inu watched as the robed old man melded into the shadows…as though he were never there to begin with. He honestly didn't know who that man was looking for, but the ANBU agent needed to make sure Naruto was safe before deciding to pursue that old man any further!

…

[Forest of Konoha, an hour later]

An hour had passed since he had begun his stroll through the woods, and so far, there was nothing interesting to catch sight of, just trees as far as the eyes could see. It was at this point that Naruto was beginning to wonder if this walk was going to gain him anything. "Damn it!" he said to himself, "You'd think you'd see something of a battle being left behind! I mean come on! What's so wrong about wanting a little bit of firsthand experience?"

Just as he was about to give up, Naruto caught sight of something hidden in a bird's nest; walking in close, he could see a straight line attached to a ring contrasting with the moonlight. He leaped into the branches, and upon landing, the impulse to touch the thing saw his hand reaching out and touching the bar to feel a sort of fabric stuck to the surface, and the hardness underneath the bandages that formed a handgrip made it clear to Naruto that this was some kind of kunai. The second he picked it up, he took the time to inspect his trinket. It was a weird-looking thing; not like the standard-issue kunai he was used to seeing. This one had two prongs, a long and straight one, and a smaller one jutting out in an angle. _'This thing looks like one of those jitte I've seen those samurai cops using in the movies,'_ he thought to himself, a grin beginning to form on his features, _'Awesome, that must mean that the fight took place somewhere around here!'_

Before he could celebrate his personal victory, Naruto had a feeling that someone was coming. Was he being chased? In any case, he needed to hide and figure out his next course of action, and he found his hiding place in one of the bushes. Once he managed to settle himself down, he started to relax himself; if he panicked, he would be found out and who knows what'll happen to him. True enough, three figures showed up in the moonlight—going by their gear and the way they carried themselves, they were most obviously kunoichi, one with silver hair, another with dull reddish-brown, and the last one had a dirty blond hair color.

"You think we'll be able to find the kunai here?" asked the blonde, searching the area with her colleagues.

"Just shut the fuck up and keep looking!" snapped the silver-haired kunoichi, "We need to find that kunai Hiyami sent that message about, and get the fuck out of here before we run into a Konoha patrol."

"And what if we are found by one?"

"Then we'd better hurry up now won't we? I sure as hell am not going back to Taki empty-handed."

It was then that the bronze-haired kunoichi decided to voice her concerns…if only to take their leader's focus off her colleague. "I don't understand, what's so special about that kunai Hiyami left behind?"

Turning to face her subordinate, the silver-haired kunoichi simply let out a glare that threatened to burn holes in her face. "That kunai contains intel on the Konoha border patrol. Just think for a minute what this would mean if we could find out just what Hiyami learned! Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we used that information to sneak that freak Fū into these borders to destroy Konoha!"

Upon hearing this, Naruto found himself backing up in shock when he heard something snap. As if hoping what he'd just heard was not true, he hazarded a glance downward and found that his heel was standing on a broken twig. "What the hell, who's there?!" Crap! He needed to get away now! With that on mind, he quickly turned, and began to make his escape! As he fled, Naruto could hear the silver-haired kunoichi shouting, "Get him!"

As he took quick strides through the forest, running through nature-made obstacles, Naruto could hear the sound of near-misses following his trail. After seeing a large rock in the ground, he simply vaulted over it, hearing the 'chink-chink-chink' of multiple projectiles embedding themselves in the rock before he rolled on the ground under a low-hanging branch to continue running. As he ran, avoiding every obstacle in a fluid manner, his main thought was: _'Thank kami that the Hard Guys were some of the guys chasing me! Otherwise, I wouldn't be lasting this long running from those crazy bitches!'_

After leaping forward and swinging on a branch to get himself over a boulder, Naruto tried very hard to remind himself not to look back…doing so would slow him down just as much as if he'd tripped, maybe even worse! His mad dash to escape soon came to a skidding halt the very second he saw the edge of a cliff. Shit! How could this night get any worse? He soon turned around to find himself surrounded by three very tired, and very pissed-off kunoichi.

"Well now we know where that intel is," said the silver-haired kunoichi with her eyes locked on the funny-looking kunai Naruto found, and a feral grin on her face with the panting adding to her already frightening aura, "and to think that the witness was just a civilian boy! Now then, back to business; give us the kunai, and we'll let you live!"

While most people thought of him as a hyperactive idiot, Naruto was anything but stupid. He knew that whatever it was that those kunoichi chased him for on that kunai was way too important to let anyone not from their village to know. All that considered, Naruto knew exactly what to do—it wasn't the smart thing to do, but at least it was something. He drew his curved kunai, and brandished it in front of the kunoichi. "Fuck you!" he shouted angrily, hoping the terror wouldn't show in his grip, "You're just going to kill me anyway!"

To his shock, the silver-haired kunoichi let out a snicker. "You know something? You're right!"

…

[Elsewhere in the Forest of Konoha]

This was not good! It seemed that Naruto snuck off into the woods! Whatever happened to his protection detail for the day?! All that aside, Inu ran through the forest and silently made a note to himself to chew out the idiot that was supposed to be doing their job today. He wasn't going to bother scolding the boy for his recklessness though; Iruka was more than likely going to do that job already if he survived, considering how much like him Naruto was at his age.

He'd learned from his ninken that Naruto's scent was heading into the forest, and so Pakkun and the others split up to aid in the search.

"Kakashi!"

Well, speak of the devil! That little pug just fails to disappoint! "What is it Pakkun?"

"We found Naruto, but he's in trouble! He's being chased by foreign kunoichi…now I'm not worried that he won't be able to outrun them, the problem is that I don't know how long he has until he runs into a dead end."

Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit! "Then we need to hurry! Which way?!"

"North of here."

"Then get everyone to move in that direction. We need to intercept them before it gets really bad!"

It didn't take long for Pakkun to lead Kakashi over to Naruto's current position…unfortunately, his hopes that he was okay were dashed upon watching as the silver-haired kunoichi stabbed him with her sword!

…

[Cliffside…]

They say that time slows down when you're about to die—unfortunately for Naruto, he found that that saying was a pile of crap! Deep down inside, he hoped that the one who said that had died a slow and painful death. This was because in the span of two seconds, the silver-haired kunoichi drew her sword, rushed him, and slashed him across the throat. It took a good few seconds after that for his mind to register the pain that he was feeling pain from getting a sword running through his heart; in total, it took no less than seven seconds for him to die.

It was at this final moment that his brain soon went into overdrive as the blood loss began to kick in. He'd failed to stop them from getting that intel, that was for sure, but in his dying moments, his mind was conflicted as to what he was feeling at the moment—at first, he felt the despair that he would be letting these bitches get away with what they were doing; that they would allow their nation's shinobi forces to sneak into Hi no Kuni with impunity so that they could burn down everything he ever cared about. However, looking at all things considered, he found a new emotion…partially from his own failure to stop this from happening, but because these bitches didn't seem to care who got killed so long as they got the job done. With his mind settled more on his anger than despair, Naruto had finally made up his mind! He was not going to die here! However, it seemed useless at the moment as he blacked out—perhaps death had finally come for him.

…

[Unknown Location]

The sound of dripping water could be heard in the distance as candles illuminated the cell with their dim lights. The occupant of the cell simply sat in the lotus position, deep in meditation with their back to the bars, never minding the dreary surroundings as the lights traced a glowing orange highlight around their silhouette, giving a vague hint that it was a very-much naked woman. After all, to be trapped in such a place, what else was there to do but meditate?

Before long, something caught the woman's attention, causing her to break her meditation and look around in an attempt to find the source of the commotion. It was at this time that she began to feel a sort of angry aura about her—it was rolling around like a forest fire. Normally, any emotion was a drug that provided entertainment in this monotonous place (especially rage while facing a worthy adversary), but now was not one of those times. Instead, she opted to throw a tantrum at what she had seen happening through the eyes of another, winding up punching the ground angrily. "Baka! Baka, baka baka!" she sobbed to herself, "You've had a hard enough life as it is! And now you're going to suffer even more because of this!"

After a moment's deliberation, the woman started to calm down. It's not his fault that this happened, well, technically he shouldn't even have been out in the forest at this hour, so it was kinda his fault that he got killed. But all in all, it wasn't his fault he had no parents to tell him about the Curse, and he most certainly was not to blame for having the Curse already in his blood. And above all, it was not his fault that she had to be locked away again in this depressing place, putting him in even greater danger of activating the Curse in the first place.

Ah well, what's done is done. She may as well sit back, enjoy the ride, and be there for the boy; because whether he knows it or not, he **_will_** need her help in the future.

…

{Play: "Asura Unleashed" from "Asura's Wrath"}

[Forest of Konoha]

Kakashi was not happy—no, he was shocked at what had just happened. After kicking the body off her sword, the Taki kunoichi wiped her blade and re-sheathed it. The leader of the group reached down, and picked up the kunai they were looking for. "For all the trouble you caused us, gaki, you really should've died slower."

That one remark was all it took for him to feel rage building up. Those bitches were going to die soon!

"You really think that was a good idea?" asked the blonde, watching as her leader turned to regard her teammates, "he had no hitae-ate, so it's likely we killed a civilian."

"Yeah, that's right, we killed a civvie! And if you tell anybody we did that, I'm going to…" before she could say any more, a scream of pain had startled all three of them into turning to face the source of the noise. Kakashi was surprised, as he thought she'd killed the boy for sure, and here he was, hunched forward in a fetal position, screaming in pain.

Neither Pakkun nor Kakashi could make sense of what the two of them were seeing. They were only a few feet away from avenging his sensei's son, and the first thing they saw was Naruto screaming loudly to the point that his voice gradually became less human and more beastly by the second. As if to signify the worsening of his condition, the boy began to undergo a transformation that would probably haunt the ANBU agent and the ninken's nightmares: his skin had turned a fierce red starting from his limbs and towards his neck, his nails and canines began to sharpen themselves into deadly claws and fangs, his hair began to whiten to become a feral cream color, and his eyes started to blacken at the sclera while the cerulean pupils turned into a savagely glowing red.

With his scream of pain dying down, Naruto turned his attention back to the Taki kunoichi, issuing forth a bestial roar in front of the frightened leader, causing all three kunoichi to leap backwards to throw a multitude of shuriken at the transformed boy. The howl issued from Naruto's mouth sounded something akin to a battle cry, as he simply dodged the storm of shuriken flying in his direction, before pursuing the three kunoichi with his claws outstretched and ready to cut into his targets. After seeing that their screen of shuriken failed to kill the target, the three of them worked together to form the dog, rat, and tiger hand seals in sync with each other. "Katon Renkeijutsu: Karura!" Once the sequence was complete, the three of them exhaled a stream of fire at Naruto, which soon became a large dragon of fire that engulfed the boy.

The three kunoichi simply waited with bated breath, watching carefully in the smokescreen caused by their jutsu, hoping that the jutsu had succeeded in killing the monster. In a split second, their hopes were dashed; their target had pounced upon their blonde colleague and slashed her across the abdomen with his claws, causing her to bleed profusely before he grabbed her by the neck and lifted her above his head before she could even grunt in pain. As she struggled for air, the blonde seemed to glow for a mere second before letting out a pained and terrified scream and then exploding in a bloody mess that demoralized her surviving teammates with the manner of her death.

It was clear that Naruto was not satisfied with his kill, as he turned to face his two remaining victims. It wasn't long until the blonde kunoichi's blood started gathering into his hand before crystallizing and taking on the shape of a tsurugi-pattern sword, and Naruto howled at his next victim; the silver-haired kunoichi found her nerve, and drew her sword. "Come on you bastard! I'm right here!" Her opponent had suddenly rushed her so quickly that she was unable to counterattack, bringing the sword upwards to sever her right arm at the shoulder before bringing the blade back down to cut off her left arm, and spinning around to slash her across her thighs, before kicking her in the chest and sending the torso to the ground in such a manner as to be standing up on the stumps of her legs and screaming painfully. Once she was confirmed dead from blood loss, Naruto then reached his free hand forward, and started forming a second blood-sword from his victim's blood.

A single sound was all it took for him to react, as he threw one of his blood-swords at the retreating kunoichi as she was crawling away, the tip being driven into the back of her leg, cutting into the lower end of the femur and the condyle of the tibia, and penetrating the patella, pinning her down briefly before the sword detonated! As the remaining Taki kunoichi was blown away by the blast, she was thrown forward in such a manner that she was able to see that her entire leg was missing! After letting out a scream of pain, she looked up with the same expression as a deer in a headlight to see that her teammates' killer was advancing upon her slowly. Every step he took only served to increase her fear by tenfold. The moment she saw the monster stop in front of her with his remaining sword raised in the air, there was little doubt in her mind that she would die a very messy death like her colleagues. The blade was brought down, her gaping mouth let out an ear-piercing final scream! And just when it was guaranteed that the Taki kunoichi was going to die, Kakashi watched as a cloaked figure ran up to Naruto, leaped into the air, and brought his own sword down. As though sensing the incoming attacker, Naruto turned and blocked with his own sword, and pushed back the intruder.

"How unfortunate," said the figure, the voice revealing its owner to be the old man that Kakashi had encountered earlier, "it would appear that your curse has finally been activated; such a shame, to happen to someone so young…"

Naruto let out a loud roar, and charged the old man with his sword in hand, beginning the fight with an upwards slash, which was parried. The old man was about to get in a counter-slash when Naruto grabbed his hand, and tried to stab him with his free hand, only to be dodged and kneed in the face, followed by getting tripped up. The berserk boy's response was to back flip away from the old man, only to be kicked in the back. Naruto roared, and switched from a one-handed grip on his sword to a two-handed one, charging in on his opponent with fierce slashes, all of which were blocked and countered, before he was pushed back, revealing that he had many scratches all over his body, while the old man merely had cuts on his robes with negligible injuries. Another roar, Naruto jabbed his claw-tipped fingers into his shoulder, nicking the subclavian artery, and issuing forth a small gush of blood which promptly turned into a hilt that he grabbed and pulled upon, creating a large single-edged blood-sword with large, fang-like protrusions along the edge of the blade.

The standoff between the two swordsmen generated enough pressure to drive anyone insane. While the stranger in the robe was silent, Naruto's bestial panting seemed to increase the tension already being felt in the air. It was Pakkun who broke the silence. His lowered volume betrayed none of the desperation he felt. "You've got to stop this before it gets out of hand Kakashi!"

"You don't need to tell me twice," said Kakashi, feeling the tension in the air, "but either way, I need to time this just right. Can I trust you with taking the Taki Kunoichi to Ibiki alive while they're at it?"

"I know Bull is nearby, and he's listening in as we speak; not sure if she'll have anything useful to say though."

"We go on my mark…"

Howling into battle, Naruto began the fight at high speeds with a single swipe with his new sword, causing the stranger to dodge and parry his opponent's attacks with impunity while countering with his own attacks. Every slash was knocked away and repaid with three cuts, and every thrust was missed and answered with an attempt to grab him. The difference in skill between the two swordsmen was clear—Naruto was simply fighting on rage and animal instinct, and while his attacks were wild and unfocused, they had the force of a mountain behind them; the stranger on the other hand was obviously a true master of the blade, not letting his opponent's ferocity get to him as he wove around the boy's attacks with the grace of an experienced dancer, changing grips fluidly to suit his needs.

"Impressive!" shouted the stranger in the heat of battle, "You actually made me work a little!" With a quick kick, Naruto was sent backwards briefly before the stranger's sword took on a blue glow. As though sensing what the stranger was about to do, he quickly hopped to the side upon landing just in time for the older man to swing his sword upwards, sending a wave of ice after him. Once he regained his bearings, he kicked off the ground with both swords at the ready, and managed to catch his opponent in a deadlock; his two swords were being held back by the stranger's single blade.

This was the moment he was waiting for! And Kakashi knew he'd be a fool if he didn't take this opportunity! His voice cracked like thunder, and action was taken with one word: "NOW!"

It all happened so fast; Pakkun relayed the order to the large bulldog that was near the Taki kunoichi to snatch her away before she was drawn back into the conflict. Meanwhile, Kakashi made his move to snake his arms around Naruto's neck and under his armpit, clamping down on his carotid arteries, causing the boy to drop his swords, which splashed into puddles of blood upon hitting the ground while he struggled to throw the ANBU agent off his back. Every second he tightened his grip on the boy-turned-beast's neck, he found himself getting more and more tired the longer he held on. Did this transformation grant Naruto's superhuman strength and durability? Whatever the case was, Kakashi knew that he had to hold on if his sleeper hold was going to be effective.

Within a good ten seconds of trying to shake off his assailant, Naruto's motions gradually became more sluggish before he fell to the ground, having passed out from lack of oxygen. Once he was certain that his target was out cold, Kakashi watched as the boy's body started reverting back to the way it was: the cream-colored hair started turning back to gold, the canines and claws dulled to human standard, and the redness of his skin had receded to the point that only his left arm remained transformed. "I would step aside, Shinobi-san," said the stranger, walking closer while sheathing his sword, "if he wakes up, there's no guarantee that he'll remain like this."

"And what are you going to do?"

In response, the stranger pulled out a pair of items from a satchel in his robes. It was a pair of thick and ornate shackles with runes inscribed upon the surface. Attached to each shackle was a short and heavy chain, eliciting a silent question from Kakashi as they were presented to him. "I know this looks bad, but these shackles are necessary. The runes inscribed on the surface will limit the amount of power he will receive from the cursed arm, and keep him sane. Put them on that arm, or there will be a repeat of what happened just now, and I'm fairly certain that you don't want that."

There was no sign of deceit in the stranger's voice. Kakashi took the shackles and placed the smaller one on Naruto's wrist and the larger one on his bicep; as soon as each one was clamped over their respective areas on the arm with a metal click and the gasping of pressure being applied, followed by a subtle whirring and briefly-glowing runes as the shackles automatically adjusted themselves to fit snugly.

He'll be fine." Reassured the old man. "I don't envy him the pain he'll be in when he awakes, but at least he'll still be alive."

"You do realize I still have to bring you in for questioning, don't you?"

"There will be no need for that," began the stranger, hefting Naruto over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, "I have a concern for the boy's welfare and future, and so I need to have a word with him in the hospital when he is awake and aware. Although, I would recommend bringing the Hokage in for this, as I feel that this should involve him as well."

While his voice was calm, Kakashi could tell that he wanted no argument on the matter; he would speak with the Hokage and Naruto, and that was final. From what he'd seen of the man's skills, it'd be almost like sparring with Gai, except this Gai wielded a short sword and used techniques he'd never seen used before. "Fine, I'll meet you in the hospital with the Hokage, but the second you make a move to kill either of them, and I will take you out no matter what it takes."

The elderly man nodded. "Fair enough."

"I'll let the Hokage know of the meeting so that you can keep an eye on Naruto," said Pakkun, temporarily drawing attention to himself, "he needs to know what happened tonight."

…

[Konoha General Hospital morning]

Blurry eyes had opened to the sight of a white wall before things gradually cleared up to reveal shades, and then the texture of painted plaster. All in all, Naruto felt weak, but even then, he knew that this was the hospital. _'What the hell happened last night?'_ he asked himself, _'Why am I in the hospital? And why do I feel like I've had a bad case of sunburn?'_

"It seems you had quite a rough night yesterday," came a very familiar voice. "Luckily, you were a relatively easy case to treat."

Naruto used what strength he had at the moment to look at the speaker with recognition in his eyes. The man that stood close by with a medical chart in his hands was in his thirties, and was dressed in a black kimono and hakama with a white kimono underneath and a white obi. While not so obvious on his arms, Naruto knew that under the kimono were a large number of suture scars crisscrossing the man's body, and dark skin grafted onto the corner of his face over his left eye. Another distinguishing feature of the man was the fact that there was a patch of white against a background of unkempt black hair. To the average patient and doctor, he was Hazama Kurō, possibly the best surgeon and general practitioner in Konoha at the moment—but to Naruto, he was 'Fusuma-sensei'. "So Naruto, how do you feel right now?"

"I feel like I was thrown in an oven and cooked alive," began Naruto, watching as the doctor scribbled on his clipboard, "Oi, Fusuma-sensei, how did I get here?"

"I'd ask the man that brought you in last night about that," said Hazama, finally putting the clipboard down to regard Naruto, "he said he wanted to talk to you about something with the Hokage present as soon as you wake up. I'm guessing it has to do with your left arm."

A raised eyebrow was all that was needed to show Naruto's confusion. As soon as he lifted his arm to see what Dr. Hazama was talking about, that confusion soon had a good amount of fear mixed in, as instead of matching his right arm, the skin of his left arm was a bloody red, with pointy nails at the end of each finger and the thumb. It also had a metal band clamped on the wrist, and another on his upper-arm, each with heavy chains attached and rattling in the air.

"Naruto-kun!" called out an old voice that Naruto knew quite well, "It's so good to see you again."

The voice belonged to the Hokage, who was walking in with a stranger in a hooded robe that hid the face. Following them was the dog-masked ANBU agent that Naruto had seen around once or twice. "How're you doin' Hokage-jiji?"

"Fine, all things considered," answered the Hokage, his caring look turning to a concerned one, "Naruto, do you remember anything that happened last night?"

"No, I was hoping you could tell me." Naruto said shaking his head.

The Hokage let out a relieved sigh upon hearing that. "It's probably for the best that you don't. Trust me when I say that there are things in the world you don't want to remember."

_'He's probably right,'_ thought Naruto, _'Hokage-jiji is actually someone who is nice to me, and he always tells me stuff that always seems to make sense. He doesn't have any reason to lie to me.' _His train of thought was soon disturbed as soon as the man in the robes cleared his throat. "If everything is squared away, then perhaps we can make this a private conversation between the four of us?"

Hearing what the robed man said, the Hokage turned to Inu, and gave him a nod. The ANBU escorted Dr. Hazama out of the hospital room, and placed a piece of paper on the closed door. "The seal has been placed Hokage-sama," he said, walking back into the room.

"Now then, since everything is arranged as you have requested, you owe us all an explanation mister…"

"GSD," said the robed figure, taking off his hood, "you may call me GSD."

Everyone took the moment to inspect the man's face; he was old and bald, with a cross-shaped blindfold covering his eyes, and a large mustache and a beard. "I suppose the best place to start would be why Naruto has changed," he began, before turning his attention back to Naruto, "the reason you have a red arm, boy, is because of a condition known as the 'Curse of Kazan'. It's a terrible curse that drives the victim crazy enough to start killing people left, right, and center; and it doesn't matter if they're women and children, the curse would make the victim kill anyone in sight."

"And how would you know this?" asked Naruto.

GSD's response was to take off his robe, shocking everyone that saw what was underneath; he wore a suit of light armor, and a short sword holstered at his lower back, but the most eye-catching part of the old man was that he had a red left arm, with glowing runes going up from his wrist to his shoulder, and a cross-shaped scar on the deltoid. "I know all this because I am also suffering from the Curse."

"You told me yourself that Naruto needed to wear those chains to keep in control," growled Inu, feeling that Naruto was somehow being cheated, "why do you not need them?"

"During my training, I studied in a special art," answered GSD, "the reason that Naruto needs the chains and I don't is because I studied that art. Thanks to that, I no longer need the chains I gave to Naruto, as the seals you see glowing on my arm already keep me sane."

"What were you doing in the village?"

"I was in the village, checking to see if anyone had awakened the Curse. If they did, then I would've tested them to see whether or not they were in their right mind, and if I should kill them. You on the other hand, Naruto, I've decided to take you with me on my travels to teach you."

This did not sit well with the Hokage. "What makes you think I'll let you take him out of the village? You are still very much a stranger, and in my eyes, you're practically a nobody. So what assurance do I have that you have honest intentions? Come to think of it, how do I know you're not just here to kill Naruto?"

GSD's demeanor had changed from cordial to downright aggressive as he turned to regard him. The two of them seemed to have an unwavering air about them that practically dared anyone, even Naruto to say a word. "Allow me to make myself clear before you accuse me of foul play," he began, the calm coldness of his tone betraying none of his anger, "if I wanted to kill the boy, then your shinobi wouldn't be alive either. All that aside, if you don't allow me to train him in how to control the power of his demonic arm, then he may as well be a threat to everyone he encounters."

Neither of the old men was willing to back down…it was like a silent war was going on between them, with how tense the air of the room felt. It was the Hokage however, who made the next move. "And how much is your word worth? How do I know you're not lying to us right here and now?"

"I admire your persistence in finding fault in my honor." sighed GSD, frustration clear in his voice. "Since you still seem to think I'm lying to you, then ask the heads or elders of the Senju, Uchiha, and Hyūga clans about the Curse; I guarantee you that they know damn well about it, and may tell you stories from their respective families that may disturb you. Back to the subject at hand, I am keen on taking the boy with me on my travels, as my student; and I'm willing to follow any conditions you may put forth for his training. But the heart of the matter is that this all depends on Naruto's choice."

At that, GSD turned his attention back to Naruto; and he felt that gaze behind the blindfold. "Naruto, if you want me to teach you, then I'll wait for you to fully recover before giving you time to pack and say your goodbyes. If not, then that will be the end of it."

As he considered the possibilities, Naruto felt all eyes on him—seeing or otherwise. GSD seemed to be hoping that he accepted the proposal; the Hokage and Inu on the other hand were practically begging him not to go. _'Damn! What am I supposed to do now? How can I make the right choice? I didn't even hear everything!' he asked himself. 'Okay then, pros and cons of going: I can get real one-on-one training so I can be a better shinobi; I can see the world; and I don't have to deal with the glares in the village so much. Those are the pros. On the other hand, I won't be able to see my friends anymore; I might get homesick; and that blind baka may be lying after all. Damn it! Why does it have to be so damn hard?!'_ With his gaze briefly on the red arm, Naruto began to think carefully about his decision; with a sigh, he had finally made up his mind: "I'll go."

The Hokage's reaction was instantaneous. "Naruto, I really would think carefully about that. For all we know, he's lying to our faces, and he's really a bad guy that wants to kill us all."

"I did think hard about it," replied Naruto, trying hard to resist the Hokage's plea to refuse the man's offer for training, "Jiji, what if he's not lying after all? A lot of people were assholes to me, but that doesn't mean I want them dead, and I really don't want to put my friends in danger all because I didn't listen to him. Besides, I don't know why, but I think he is who he says he is."

Nodding his head in defeat, the Hokage then turned to face GSD with a determined look in his eyes—the voice he spoke in made it clear that he would not compromise a bit. "Very well then, Naruto may come with you—but under the following conditions: firstly, you will be accompanied by a shinobi of my choosing to keep an eye on you, and to teach Naruto shinobi skills; and secondly, you must have Naruto back in three years so that he can become a genin of Konoha. Are these terms acceptable?"

GSD snorted; the amusement was clear in his expression. "By far, you are the worthiest opponent I'd ever had the pleasure of encountering," he said with a smirk, "very well, I accept your terms. And Naruto, I bid you a good day."

…

{"Reset (Piano Version)" by Rei Kondoh}

[North Gates of Konoha, three days later, evening]

The sun was beginning to set upon the village of Konohagakure no Sato, a moment of sadness as Naruto was leaving. He'd had to go to each of his friends' homes to say goodbye, it only made it harder to leave whenever he saw them, but he remembered each moment perfectly. When he went to the weapons shop that Tenten lived at, her dad gave him a frightened look upon seeing his arm before calling her down. Higurashi-san was a scary-looking guy because of his huge size and his big muscles, but he was also a good man at heart; and one of the few who didn't glare at Naruto, or whisper behind his back…he'd seen him breaking people's backs for trying to steal from his shop, but he was also a great guy in general. The second that Tenten had arrived, he told her everything that happened in the morning, and that he was leaving for three years to get some personal training. She seemed positive about the recounting, but he could see something wrong in her eyes, like she wanted to say something, but chose not to. In the end, she managed with a very sincere 'you watch yourself'.

His next destination was at the Hyūga complex. When Naruto was at the gates asking for Hinata, those snooty guards just kept pushing him away until GSD arrived and threatened to cut their hands off if they continued to give him trouble. Hinata's dad Hiashi came and asked about the commotion, until he saw the old man, which caused him to yell at the Hyūga guards before letting the two of them in. According to Hiashi, Hinata was out training and he'd just missed her. Naruto told the man that he wanted Hinata to have the same message he just gave to Tenten that he was going to train with GSD. It looked to him that the 40-year-old man wanted to protest that action, but seemed quiet about it with GSD present; as though he'd be killed for arguing with him, and that he'd suffer an even worse fate if he didn't give Hinata the message.

As he went to the other compounds, their reactions were different, Kiba and Akamaru seemed dejected, but the former wished him good luck and a safe trip while he was away.

Shikamaru didn't seem to care, but Naruto seemed to understand that this was because he didn't want to say it out loud.

While he didn't seem to have any thoughts on the matter, Shino's exact words on the matter were, "I honestly don't think you should have to leave town to get training, but it is probably the best chance for you to get some real good assistance."

Choji said that things would not be the same without their eating contests at the Ichiraku Ramen. That being said, the two of them had one more ramen-eating contest with Ayame-chan and her dad watching. Naruto suspected that Choji only let him win, but promised to come back and beat him fair and square next time. The goodbye with Ayame and Teuchi-jiji on the other hand was even harder, because those two treated him like family—in spite of his status to them as a customer.

The two of them arrived at the North Gates to see a shinobi waiting for them. His dark brown hair was spiky, and held up by a steel face mask with a T-shaped visor and the crest of Konohagakure no Sato engraved upon the forehead, and he wore the standard flak jacket for a jōnin. The coffee-brown of his eyes regarded the two of them with a seemingly friendly look in them. "Greetings, I am Yamato. I'm the shinobi that Hokage-sama has assigned to the both of you and to teach Naruto shinobi skills during this trip."

With a snort, GSD turned to face the man named Yamato with a knowing smirk on his aged features. "Hopefully you'll do your job well."

"If we're done here, then we're ready to hit the road," replied Yamato, "so where are we going?"

The elder man's response was rather quick, as though he'd had that in mind from the start. "Our first destination would be northeast to Yu no Kuni," he said, taking the first steps out of the village with Naruto and Yamato following, "I have friends there who could assist in teaching the boy fundamental skills that he'll need in the future as a warrior."

…

**_A/N: And here we go. Hopefully, this is up to par for the first chapter. This time, ladies and gentlemen, we are going slower. And to you reviewers who think he should get a Rinnegan or even a Sharingan, I will make this clear: he will not get a dojutsu as that would OP him beyond all reason, because the Slayer techniques he will likely be learning should be more than enough._**

**_…_**

**_Vocabulary:_**

**_Fusuma-sensei—it pretty much means 'Dr. Quilt' in Japanese, as 'sensei' can mean 'teacher' or 'doctor'_**


	2. Start and End

_**A/N: Hello again, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like for you to welcome Soleneus and UnitedOsprey1991 to my new rock band of writers on this story. And since you have made a vote on whether or not the Uchiha Twins should return, I've listened. All that aside, do read and review, would you kindly?**_

_**...**_

[Somewhere in Hi no Kuni en route the border of Yu no Kuni—more than a week later]

Today was full of surprises, especially since he saw Yamato-sensei create a house from out of nowhere—roots shot out of the ground, shaped themselves into rectangular pillars, and formed the structure of a simple cottage. There was nothing else on the road, and Yamato said that this was his way of camping without tents. No kidding! The man could make a killing out of the houses he makes!

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to sit back and relax just yet…in fact, it was very frustrating, having to sit still while trying to 'empty out his head', and Naruto knew it—what made GSD-sensei think he could succeed in making him do what Iruka-sensei tried _**and failed miserably,**_ to teach him? Hell, it was way worse than being made to read by Iruka as it was! And even more disturbing was that both GSD-sensei and Yamato-sensei seemed to be able to take to the 'medi-whatchamacallit' like fish to water. Disturbing, but also a good opportunity for some fun! He quietly moved his hand towards the bag and felt around gently until he found a cylindrical object.

Slowly now! SLOWLY! If either GSD-sensei or Yamato-sensei heard him-if even one chain from his limiters rattled, then it would be game over! Once the cap was removed, Naruto silently moved closer, and closer, and closer until the tip of the marker was mere inches away from GSD-sensei's face. Just a little closer…

"I'd rethink that course of action if I were you," said GSD, freezing the now-startled Naruto in place, "otherwise, you will see what it's like to be a woman."

Wondering exactly what it was that GSD-sensei was talking about, Naruto looked on down and saw that the old man was threatening to cut off his crown jewels!

Exasperated at his newest failure, Naruto backed off and sat back down with a huff. "Damn it! How do you keep catching me in the act?!"

GSD chuckled. "I've been around the block longer than you have, and being blind has forced me to be able to see without using my eyes. Besides, I could hear your heartbeat from a mile away."

"Out of curiosity though, who are these friends you're taking me to?"

"Yes, I was wondering the same thing myself," said Yamato after a moment, catching Naruto's attention, "where exactly _**are**_ we going? You never said anything about your friends save for the fact that they live in Yu no Kuni."

Hearing that, Naruto turned back to GSD. Taking a moment to think, the old man finally decided to tell them. "Have either of you heard of the Baihe clan?"

The look of confusion on his face had made it clear that Naruto had no idea what he was talking about, but the same could not be said of Yamato—he had a shocked look on his face. "No way! We're going to see _**them**_?"

"Who the hell are the Baihe clan?" asked Naruto, desperately concerned with his other teacher's reaction.

"Only one of the biggest names in existence, Naruto; right up there with the Senju and Uchiha clans…maybe even the Hyūga," began Yamato, catching the boy's rapt attention, "the Baihe clan is a family that specializes in taijutsu. They're so well-known that even the Hokage is wary of them, especially their leader."

Upon hearing this, the image that came to Naruto's mind was a large gang of hulking muscle-men that looked somewhat like Higurashi-san, who was a scary-looking man as it were. He shivered as he remembered exactly what to the last shinobi that tried to rob him. '_Not a pretty sight; well it was kinda cool, but still too painful to watch.'_ "What're we going to them for anyway?" he finally asked, finally getting the nerve to keep talking.

"It's simple really," said GSD, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, "we are going to see them so that they will teach you how to fight with your fists."

The indignant look on Naruto's face made it clear as to his thoughts. "But I already know how to do that! I thought I was going to learn swordsmanship!"

Yamato let out a sigh upon hearing that. "Naruto, I really would listen to him. The Baihe are taijutsu specialists—they know taijutsu; they breathe taijutsu; I've seen one of them beat down a team of four jōnin-level shinobi with nothing but taijutsu, and he was just a farmer who rarely ever practiced! Trust me when I say that it doesn't hurt to learn something new."

"But sensei!"

"No 'buts' Naruto, you are going to the Baihe clan to learn proper taijutsu," interrupted GSD, walking out of the room, "and until you have learned everything you can from the Baihe clan, I will not teach you anything related to swordplay or your curse. And besides, I've sent a letter before we left Konoha saying that we'll be there; which means we now have an appointment to keep."

Naruto was about to say something to GSD, but the man had already left. "Fine!" he said to himself, "I'll beat up every member of the Baihe clan if I have to, and then I'll prove to you that I'm ready for your sword training!"

…

{Play: "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" by Toshiro Masuda}

[Meanwhile, Uchiha Fugaku's Mansion…]

It'd been silent for quite some time now; save for the joyous laughter of her children, it was just the way she liked it. Uchiha Mikoto sat in front of two katana in shirasaya mountings, almost contemplating what to do with them. Both swords were used during her time as a kunoichi, and they'd served her well; they were both forged at the same time with love, and high-quality steel from Tetsu no Kuni; they were identically well-weighted and balanced like those weapons she'd heard of that were made by the Saika clan in Tetsu no Kuni. Each sword was short and light enough to be usable in a fast draw and for one-handed swordsmanship, while still being long and strong enough for two-handed work when necessary, but that was where the similarity ended; one had a black blade with a white fang-like temper-line while the other had a white blade with a black fire-like temper line. They were yin and yang; black and white; good and evil; pleasure and pain—they were both complete opposites of each other and yet neither of them could live without the other, as it was with most twins. They were the weapons that she trusted her life with enough to call them both 'sisters': the chaste maiden Shirohime and her seductive twin sister Kurohime.

She'd chuckled lightly to herself as she remembered the thrills she'd had because of both of them, as well as how often they'd saved her life; it was a sort of guilty pleasure she had, as she was afraid her 'husband' would take them both and melt them away—being the asshole he was. Her momentary sense of nostalgia was broken when she heard the shoji door opening. Mikoto knew what was coming, and she didn't need to turn around to see who it was. "Hiruzen had sent word that you were coming to contact me," she said, "is it time?"

"No, not yet." said the person behind her, eliciting a minute flinch of recognition—how could she not recognize that voice? "But make no mistake; it's going to happen soon."

Funny, Mikoto knew that Hiruzen had sent his mole to see her personally; she just didn't think that it was _**him**_—but then again, she'd already seen the signs. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Not now. But when the time comes, that depends."

"On?"

"On the answers you give me now."

Mikoto sighed to herself as she thought it over. She was living on borrowed time as it was, and given her own failures in life, she felt it was a well-deserved fate. "What do you want to know?"

"Why now? You could've helped out in the coup, and you'd be powerful enough to do whatever you like. What made you want to turn on your own husband?"

Thinking to herself, she remembered exactly why it was that she joined in on the coup in the first place. "I wanted to join the coup mainly to protect my family, but there is also another thing I did it for; I wanted Naruto-kun to grow up in a loving family that would make him into the shinobi his parents wanted him to be…and now that the Curse has awakened in him, I also wanted to let him know that he wasn't the only one infected with it. At first, Fugaku didn't care what happened to the boy—he could die in the attack for all he cared. But after hearing that he has awakened the Curse from Hiruzen, now he wants to use him as not only our attack dog, but to find a way to replicate it onto many of our members. That wasn't what I wanted for Naruto, and I also realized that my family would be in danger because of him as well; which is why I decided to come clean and give Naruto some more time to run away and be his own man."

Taking everything into account, and the resignation he could hear in her voice, the man sighed. "You've made peace with your fate?"

Mikoto's response was to let out a bitter chuckle. "Of course I have. Even if Hiruzen had disregarded their will and took him to an orphanage under my nose, I still failed my friends when Naruto was taken to the orphanage—I won't fail them again by letting that monster get away with what he's planning to do. If my death will be penance for everything I'd done so far, then so be it. At least my conscience will be clear."

At this point, the man had already turned to leave. "But at the very least, you have to promise me something," called out Mikoto, just as the person was about to leave.

"Name it."

"I want you to make sure my sisters get a worthy owner."

"Consider it done, mother."

…

{"The First Step, Part 1" by Jeff Williams from "RWBY"}

[Baihe Clan Village, Yu no Kuni—two days later…]

Only one word could describe the scene that Naruto was seeing at the moment as he walked the streets: "Wow!"

The entire village practically screamed 'wealth'…all the buildings were well-made, the streets were paved and clean, and the people were well-fed and friendly to each other as they talked animatedly about prices; add to the large rock cliffs that rose above the tree line on one side, and a giant buddha statue meditating next a waterfall on the other to make a very beautiful scene, and one could see that it was a very nice place to live. "I'd seriously like to live here," he said to himself, "I mean, I love Konoha all the same, but this village puts it to shame!"

"You didn't honestly think the Baihe Clan made its revenue as brutish mercenaries did you?" asked GSD, in response to Naruto's remark, "True, they have a reputation for being deadly fighters, but they are not a shinobi clan at all."

Naruto turned to face his sensei with a look of confusion. "They're not?"

"According to what I've heard, while the Baihe Village is a place where many members of the family live, the rest of them are nomads; meaning they like to travel a lot," said Yamato, "traveling doctors, monks, masseurs, dancers, acrobats, singers; they do any job on the road, and often make a lot of money from those jobs—but a good part of their earnings is always sent back to the village to take care of family back here. However, it is here in the village that you can find a lot of really good doctors; there's rarely a medical-related problem that they can't solve—their matriarch quite possibly being one of the best doctors in the entire world."

'_I wonder what Fusuma-sensei would do if I managed to bring him here?'_ thought Naruto, as he continued to walk. Come to think of it, he didn't see too many muscle-men in the village…just a lot of normal-looking and pretty people, many of whom looked too pretty to be the taijutsu masters he'd heard about (some of the ladies were dressed like Tenten was). Were the masters all out to work like Yamato-sensei just said? However, his train of thought quickly came to a word he'd never heard before: "Matriarch? What's that?"

"Let me put it to you this way: if Konoha were a clan instead of a village, then the Hokage would be the Patriarch, because he's a man—the Matriarch on the other hand is if the Hokage were a woman," explained Yamato, before catching the dumbfounded look on Naruto's face getting even worse, "but for you, the best way to remember it is like this: the 'patriarch' is the father of a really big family, while the 'matriarch' is the mother."

Satisfied with his answer, Naruto was about to say something before he noted that everyone seemed to give the three of them a wide berth as they both followed GSD to wherever he was going. '_Why are they stepping aside? Are they like the grownups back home?'_

"We're here." said GSD, causing both Naruto and Yamato to take in the sight. His previous train of thought came to a screeching halt the second the three of them had stopped in front of two large, lacquered wooden doors, each of which had rows of round, brass studs embedded into the surface and ring handles to close them shut. He then saw that the house behind the large wall seemed to be about two stories high, and was a pretty good-looking place with a pagoda-style roof. Overall, it had a very simplistic beauty to it.

"Oi! Hold it right there!" called a voice from the side, Naruto turned to see a man in dark blue clothes with a red sash, padded yellow gloves, and a brass badge on his jacket walking closer. He was very big and muscular, easily standing a head over GSD-sensei but he was pretty sure that Higurashi-san would make him look like a common house cat—speaking of which, he had a very leonine appearance about him, given the stubble on his face and his short, disheveled black hair. Overall, he looked like a lion-man that was ready to beat somebody up and the pair of tonfa he kept holstered at his sides only made him look fiercer. At first, it looked like he was going to do something mean until he had a look of recognition on his face that quickly melded into sincere friendliness. "Ah! Long time no see, GSD-san! I suppose you're here to see nee-chan?"

GSD returned the gesture of friendship by shaking the larger man's hand. "Of course Shizi, I have something to ask of her."

The man named Shizi let out a laugh while releasing his grip on the handshake. "So it's that time again, eh?" he asked, before turning his attention to Naruto, "And who is this?"

"Shizi, I'd like you to meet Uzumaki Naruto, my newest protégé, and Yamato, a recently-promoted jōnin," introduced GSD, "Naruto, Yamato, this is Baihe Shizi—one of the Baihe clan's top fighters, and a high-ranking member of the village's police force."

Naruto had a look of confusion on his face, wondering at the concept. "Police? Are you some kind of shinobi?"

"Not really," he said, "the police doesn't go out making trouble, or get involved in trouble; our job is to stay in the village and stop trouble before it gets worse."

"Oh, I see now! You're like a shinobi that stays in the village protecting people!"

"Bingo!" said Shizi, before turning his attention back to GSD, "So where'd you find these two?"

"They are both from Konohagakure no Sato."

This seemed to surprise Shizi a bit, but he decided to ask anyway. "And the Hokage let you travel all the way here to Yu no Kuni?"

"It took some convincing, but yes."

"Well then, don't let me stop you!" said Shizi, as he stretched a bit, "I've got to get back to my patrol, or else the commissioner will have my ass. I'll see you soon Naruto!"

With that, Shizi walked away, leaving the three of them at the gates to the mansion. "He was a nice guy," said Naruto, breaking the silence.

"Shizi is a popular officer here because of his friendliness," agreed GSD, with a nod, "but don't underestimate him—I'm fairly certain that if pushed, he'll end a fight with one of your shinobi by breaking their backs so that they will no longer be a threat."

Once he had said his piece, he ambled carefully towards a bronze gong hanging in a depression in the wall next to the doors before feeling his hands around to find the baton and using it to strike the gong. The sound from the gong was loud enough to be heard in all directions, but soft enough to be pleasant. It would not be long until the large double-doors opened with a woman in her mid-twenties standing at the portal. "GSD-san, you and your guests are expected," said the woman, bowing respectfully, "please, this way."

As the three of them entered the mansion grounds, he was speechless upon seeing the view that awaited him. Naruto managed to get a close-up view of what the scenery was like on the inside. It was like he'd died and went to heaven—tall trees, blossoming flowers, even a miniature river running throughout the courtyard that led into a koi pond. "Whoever lives here is probably loaded to the nines."

"Of course she is," answered GSD, "in fact, the whole Baihe clan village is very well-off and is actually a place where people come from all over the world to relax and have a very good time without fear of war; and if you're not here to have a good time, then their doctors are more than likely able to treat your sicknesses quite well so that you _**can**_ have a good time. Baihe Huāyīn, the owner of this mansion, is mainly rich not simply because she got it from her family, but because she is quite possibly one of the best doctors in the entire world—to the point where even Kage-level shinobi come to her from time to time to be treated."

Naruto's eyes had widened upon hearing that. This was the home to one of the best doctors in the world? "Have a look around if you like," said GSD, "just make sure you don't break anything—I know Baihe-dono has a pretty good temper, but even she has bad days."

"Great!" exclaimed Naruto, with glee in his voice, "More sightseeing!"

"Wait for me Naruto," called out Yamato, as the boy started running off, "I need to have a word with GSD and then I'll catch up with you."

"There's no need for that," said the servant-girl, "I'd be happy to take him on a tour of the mansion grounds while you meet with GSD-san."

"Okay!"

With Naruto out of earshot, Yamato turned to GSD with a serious look on his face. "We both know that bringing Naruto here is unnecessary," he said, "I can train him in the art of taijutsu pretty well, so why?"

It took a few minutes of thoughtful silence before GSD finally turned to regard the shinobi. "All students need a foundation before they learn any art," he began, "it is easier when the student is a blank slate; but most of the time, you need to break the student down before you can teach him anything. For Naruto, he definitely needed to be broken before he could learn anything."

"Is that all? You brought him here just to break him?" asked Yamato, disgusted by what he was hearing, "Because I'm certain that I can do that as well…make no mistake, I've not been pulling any punches in teaching him thus far."

"Of that, I have no doubt, but I felt that a specialist would do him good in this case. And besides, there's another reason why I've decided to bring him here…"

…

[Elsewhere…]

"Oh, yes!" said a female voice, taking in the sights from someone else's eyes, "It's been such a long time!"

And it was true; the Baihe Clan village was well-known for being a wealthy resort town famous for pretty much being built on a large-scale hot spring dubbed in their tongue as the "Shèngshuǐ", or "Seisui" in standard Nihongo. The reason being that it had been known for quite some time that the water in the springs were extremely clear due to chlorine rising up from cracks at the bottom from natural deposits, mixing in with other minerals in trace amounts and dissolving into the water from the geothermal heat. This had the effect of lowering maintenance costs, and purifying and disinfecting the water thoroughly enough for it to be safe to both drink and bathe in it. Due to how quickly the water is purified here, no matter how often one touches it, it would be purified near instantly; which would be the reason it was considered as 'holy water'.

She remembered every decadent pleasure she enjoyed every once in a while, staying in this resort town from time to time: eating delicious, high-quality Baihe-style home-cooking that included dishes like Mapo tofu, yin-yang fried rice, even barbecued pork served on white rice; pitchers served on trays full of their famous snake wine warming her body up and giving her a kick to the senses with the cobra venom soaked in; taking the sexy masseuses to bed with her after touching her with strong hands and soft bodies after purifying her stresses away from bathing in the 'holy water'; even kissing the hunkier but no less sexy men in the annual martial arts tournaments held in town.

Ah, the joys of freedom…unfortunately, it also brought a frown to her face as she remembered that she was currently forced into an ascetic lifestyle. Oh what she wouldn't give to be able to taste and actually eat something, to drink and be satisfied, even feel the warmth of flesh meeting flesh as she made out with someone (it didn't matter if that someone was a boy or girl). While she grumbled and cursed her fate, she knew that there was only one person to blame for putting her in this situation in the first place. But unfortunately, as her father once told her (among other things), karma had a way of coming full circle.

She soon flung her head up, her anger having reached a boiling point. "TO HELL WITH KARMA! I'M A LEWD SINNER, AND I'M PROUD OF IT!"

However, before she could go on to rant about the unfairness of life, and her loss of all the luxuries she so enjoyed, the woman continued to look through the eyes of her subject. Seeing what she just did had only served to elicit an ominous chuckle. "Well now, this should be interesting," she said to herself, as she watched on, "let's see how you fare now…"

…

[Baihe Huayin's Mansion—five minutes later…]

Naruto had been spending the time on tour with the servant-girl (who introduced herself as Risei) when out of the corner of his eye, he noted something interesting going on; a young girl around his age was practicing kata by herself on a sand pit obviously designed for martial arts. The girl herself had dark brown hair done up on a pigtail behind her head, and her doe-brown eyes were focused on the task at hand—which just so happened to be the forms she was practicing at the moment. Her moves seemed almost dance-like to him as he admired her determination.

It wasn't long until she took notice of the two of them. "Risei, who is this?"

"It's a boy that GSD-san came into the mansion with." answered the servant-girl.

The girl walked on up to Naruto, her eyes exploring his body, taking in every feature like a hawk. Now he was not one to shy away from a fight, but he was actually blushing with the way she seemed to get close to him. At first, she seemed confused, as if wondering what to make of him before she finally settled on interest. "Well aren't you cute?" she asked, giving out a friendly smile, "And the whiskers on your cheeks only make me want to hug you even more. You got a name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha," he finally said, working up his nerve, "and my sensei brought me here to train." The answer he got from the girl was a cheerful laugh.

"Train? You?" she asked him mockingly, still laughing.

Now that was not what he was hoping, nor was Naruto pleased with the reaction. "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that I doubt you could handle the level of training the Baihe clan goes through on a daily basis."

"Hey! I know what I'm doing in a fight! In fact, I'll probably beat you down no sweat!"

The girl's laughter went down gradually, as she studied Naruto's expression. "I highly doubt you want to try," at this point, she got into the fighting stance he'd seen her in earlier, "but if you're sure you can beat me, then who am I to refuse?"

Naruto simply pumped his fists together in anticipation. He was just about to step into the ring when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Risei looking at him seriously. "I'd back off right now if I were you," she said, "not for her, but for you."

"Let him fight, Risei," shot back the girl, "he's probably so dumb that just telling him to give up is pointless."

With a feral smile on his face, Naruto simply got ready while Risei simply gave him a look that simply said 'your funeral'.

{Play: "Babel Noise" by Daisuke Ishiwatari from "Guilty Gear X"}

The two of them stared each other down, getting ready to strike; except Naruto wasted no time in attacking-he charged in with a heavy haymaker ready to smash into his opponent's face when she stepped backwards ever-so-slightly to dodge the punch before moving her hand forward to flick him in the forehead with her middle finger. That single flick seemed very slight and innocuous, but Naruto felt an extremely heavy force behind it that knocked him into the air, backflipping away from the girl before she grabbed him by the ankle and smashing him down into the sand really quickly.

As he lifted himself off the ground, Naruto began to wonder exactly what happened. "What the hell? What did you just do?"

"As you can see, I have a lot of strength in that one finger," she began, matter-of-factly as she slipped back into a fighting stance, "think of how much power I've got in my whole fist."

Briefly ignoring the pain, Naruto got back up and prepared to attack again...this time intending to throw a lot of quick punches at his opponent, only to watch as she dodged each punch, dancing around them effortlessly before she landed a kick up between his legs-shooting a wave of pain up his spine. Once her target was stunned from his pain, the girl then performed a backflip kick to Naruto's chin. "You charge in like a boar, hoping that'll win the fight for you; your footwork is terrible; and you're so clumsy, I think I'll be wearing the Hokage hat long before you ever will," she taunted, watching as Naruto recovered from the kick, still determined to win, "but I will give you points on bravery. I don't think anyone has tried to fight with me as long as you have, ever."

"Shut up, and fight me seriously!" The girl ducked under a punch, before landing a medium-strength punch into Naruto's solar plexus before following through with a spinning straight kick, and finishing off as soon as he rebounded from the wall by landing an uppercut under his chin, causing him to fly above the wall and falling back down into the sand.

"I'd stay down if I were you," she said, the sincerity in her voice clear as Naruto tried to get back up, "I'm already liking you as it is. I don't want to kill you."

Naruto swaggered as he tried to get back into his stance. He made a promise that he was going to beat up any Baihe clan member that got in his way...he was not going to lose here and now! He soon charged again, trying to continue the fight, but his movements were getting clumsier and clumsier from his pain and tiredness. On the same token, the girl made very little effort at dodging...not that she had to.

Seeing that her opponent was too tired to continue, the girl simply sighed, walked on up to him, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck with one hand, and wound her arm back with a closed fist. The second she swung her arm, Naruto was anticipating that she was going to make the final blow! That she was going to mash him with all the brute strength in her body that he learned the hard way she had. However, the skull-smashing blow that he'd been expecting didn't come...instead, she opened her palm and let out a puff of air into his face right above her now-open palm. After having a near-death experience, Naruto fainted, as the girl let him down. "You think that was overkill?"

"Nah, I think you let him off easy to be honest."

Just then, the sound of chuckling was heard, and the girl turned to see GSD and Yamato walking out to see Naruto. There was also an older version of the girl standing with them; her hair was done up in a bun that was held up in chopsticks, she wore fine silken robes with embroidered chrysanthemums on it, and she had lacquered green fingernails. "I see that you two are getting along just fine"

The girl remained standing, but the servant-girl bowed. "Kaa-san/Huayin-sama."

The woman now identified as Huayin chuckled. "I see that you've made friends with your new training partner."

Upon hearing that, the girl was shocked. "Training partner? This wimp?"

"Yes, he has tremendous potential that was being wasted in his home village," answered the Baihe woman, "I'd hoped to see him fight, but it looks like you beat me to the punch."

"But he could barely hit me, how could he train in the Baihe way?"

Before they could answer, a groan was heard from Naruto as he stood up, swaggering a bit while holding his head as he did so. "Man, anyone find the owner of that wagon?"

The girl was shocked, no one had ever gotten up from her attack before! This was mainly because aside from their skills in the martial arts, the average Baihe clan member was above average in terms of brute physical power when compared to the regular shinobi or human being. Maybe there was something to this boy, if her mother was willing to train him; and at that thought, the girl simply grinned.

The older woman approached Naruto, catching his attention and earning a blush. "Greetings young man, I am Baihe Huayin. You've just met my daughter Meilan." She said waving her hand to her daughter.

Naruto looked to the girl and grinned. "Nice to get a name for such a pretty girl."

Upon being called 'pretty', Meilan blushed.

"I've just spoken to Huayin-dono, and she has agreed that Meilan is going to be your training partner for the duration of your stay, Naruto." said GSD, earning a look of shock from Naruto.

"Wait, so we're staying _**here**_?/He's staying _**here**_?" Naruto and Meilan said at the same time.

"No, _**you**_ are staying here while I explore the nations. I'll be back in a year or so." Naruto was just about to protest when GSD raised a hand for more time to speak. "The beating you've just received from Meilan here should have opened your eyes; while your barroom brawling-style of hand-to-hand combat may have been adequate during your short stay in the Ninja Academy, it is not likely going to work when someone has a really good grip on the finer points of fighting. I brought you here so that you can get broken in, and then you can build a better foundation from the fragments as you train, so that at the very least you'll know what you're doing in a fight."

The grumble that Naruto let out made it clear that he was not exactly happy that he was put down by his own sensei. Huayin giggled. "I believe a year will be more than enough time to fix anything that is wrong with your stance and possibly learn some culture," she said, as her giggle died down while still smiling mirthfully, "and I'm pretty sure you'll learn other things as well."

Yamato showed Naruto a scroll. "This is the scroll for the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. I believe you will have much use for this scroll in the future...if you can show me that your taijutsu has improved."

"You're not staying either Yamato-sensei?"

"No, I am actually staying here too," answered Yamato, actually smiling, "it's just that I'm going to be staying at one of the inns in this place. If I leave town, then who is going to teach you to be a proper shinobi?"

Naruto slightly smiled. At the very least he could learn to be a shinobi. He looked at his training partner but the girl had already left with her servant. "O-oi! Wait up!"

…

[Somewhere outside the Uchiha district, Konohagakure no Sato-three days later...]

It was a mostly good day in Konohagakure no Sato for two little girls. Both of them were carbon copies of each other, coal-black hair and eyes, creamy skin from a life in the upper-class of society, and developing fairly well for their age. They were Setsuna and Setsuka, the younger twin sisters of the famed Uchiha Itachi, coming home from a day in the Academy. "Well, things went off without a hitch, eh Setsuna?" asked Setsuka, the elder of the twins by eight minutes.

"It probably would've been better if Naruto-kun were around to mix things up," answered Setsuna, her frustration at the day's lesson being clear in her voice, "I swear, if Iruka-sensei makes us read another history book, I'm going to prank the living hell out of him."

"You're telling me," laughed Setsuka, "I still remember the time when Naruto-kun snuck into the district, and the only one who was safe from this was our household."

Upon laughing, both sisters laughed as they remembered exactly what happened. It was about a year ago, but they remembered that day very well because that was when every man in the Uchiha district had their underwear turned pink. Apparently, somebody snuck into the Uchiha district in the dead of night and replaced the bleach with a detergent that turned clothes pink. The only house that wasn't hit was theirs...probably because the prankster knew that Itachi lived there. It wasn't long until fingerprinting had placed Naruto at the scene of the crime; and as soon as he was caught by Iruka (after a long chase throughout the village from his apartment), he was forced to hand-wash every single one of the Uchiha mens' clothes as punishment.

All in all, it was such a downer when they'd learned from their mother that he'd left on a training trip, but it was probably for the better that he did. His taijutsu was so pathetic that even Setsuna was able to beat him...and she was the _**weaker**_ twin (granted, she was also the _**faster**_ twin, but it still applied). Also, his grades in the academics really sucked-was he really going to be Hokage that way? But in spite of his faults, he was a kind soul that was always there to cheer them both up whenever they were down (they just wished that their dad was nice to him though).

They walked until they reached the gates to the Uchiha district. The mirthful air of their reminiscence seemed to die down as they realized that something seemed wrong about the picture...it was quiet; dead quiet. "Nee-chan, where is everyone?"

{Play: "The Ultimate Weapon" by Okabe Keiichi, from "Nier Gestalt"}

"I don't know."

The entire Uchiha district seemed empty of life; the stores were unmanned, the streets were empty; it was as though an attack had happened. It didn't matter, they needed to get home, and fast! And they both broke into a run, concerned for the fate of their family. The second they opened the door, they walked in quickly, hoping to avoid whatever had happened outside in the Uchiha district.

"Kaa-san/Tou-san?" The twins called out. They looked around, hoping that their parents hadn't suffered the same fate.

Before long, the twins heard a scream coming from the family shrine. Something just happened to their mother! They quickly ran to discover a horrifying sight; their mother limped and fell to the ground with no obvious wounds on her body...with Itachi standing over it. They gasped, their brother was killing their family.

"Nii-san?" They said simultaneously. Then Itachi turned and focused his glare on them-his Sharingan eyes had a weird pattern on them, and his face with a dead expression on it, and in his hands were a black and white pair of swords with blood dripping off of them; they were the same ones their mother once used while she was a kunoichi. The girls were paralyzed with fear at what just happened...like mice being mesmerized by a snake waiting to strike.

"W-why nii-san?" asked Setsuka, moving in subconsciously to shield her younger sister. It was obvious that she was near the point of tears herself.

"I wanted to test my power," he deadpanned, "I wanted to see the limits of my own strength. To do that, I had to kill the rest of the clan."

"That's all?" shouted Setsuna, disbelieving in what she was hearing, "You did that just for that?!" It was at this moment that Setsuka had a realization… "Then you killed Shisui!"

There was no change in his expression, no denial of the claim, just a dead look about him. "There is only one way the two you can get eyes like mine," he said, "and that is by killing your best friend."

The girls widened their eyes in horror. That could only mean one thing-killing Naruto.

"We would never kill Naruto." Setsuka stated firmly.

"He's our best friend. Why would we kill him?" added Setsuna.

Itachi shook his head. "Then you'll forever be weak, little sisters. Until you can muster up the hate to take me on, you'll never be able to avenge the clan."

Setsuka narrowed her eyes. To Itachi's surprise she was fighting off his killing intent. Albeit she was struggling, but it was still impressive that she was fighting against it at all. "If hatred is what makes us stronger, Itachi-nii, no Itachi-_**teme**_, then I will be glad to be weak."

"Naruto is our best friend," continued Setsuna, her will to fight going up along with her sister's as the two of them slipped into a fighting stance, "and we will fight alongside him. And if we ever meet him again we will become his friends and then his lovers. We wouldn't care if he had others."

"That's why we will win here, and be stronger for Naruto-kun's sake." It was at that moment the girls' eyes started to burn slightly. The direness of the situation had been enough to awaken their eyes with one tomoe in one eye, and two in the other. However, with Setsuna, her Sharingan with the single tomoe was in her right eye, and Setsuka in her left.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "You've each only awoken the most basic forms of our eyes, how can you hope to defeat me with such weak-leveled Sharingan?"

"Simple," Setsuna said leaning towards her right, "we're sisters…"

"...we fight together." finished Setsuka leaning towards her left.

{Play: "Battle in the Forgotten City" by Uematsu Nobuo from "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children"}

Itachi shook his head. "Your funeral little sisters." Just then the window shattered and Itachi was kicked back. It was too quick to see, but the sisters saw that their savior was was...another Itachi?

"Two nii-san's?" The two sisters asked, their confusion causing their stance to slip for just a moment.

However, the second Itachi briefly turned and smiled warmly at them; and it was then that both realized that this was the real Itachi. "Setsuna, Setsuka, congratulations on awakening your eyes. I apologize, however, that I may not get the chance to train you."

As they wondered exactly what he meant when he said that, that their world had turned dark...as they were both put to sleep using a genjutsu. "Pray that you do not awaken the Curse", said Itachi, as he turned around after making sure his sisters were okay to see the Itachi-clone; his expression of brotherly love turning to determination to take this man down. "So you're the one who's been killing the Uchihas whose lives I've spared," he growled, fingering the hilt of his ninjato, "Who are you?"

The imposter Itachi chuckled before morphing to an orange masked man with red clouds placed against a black background. "Uchiha Itachi, what a pleasure to meet you," he said, "and just as I was tying up loose ends for you."

"You still haven't answered my question." he said, getting ready to attack with his standard-issue ninjato held in the reverse-grip.

"Hmm, I wonder," answered the masked man, in faux-thought, "I guess you could call me Uchiha Madara."

"You're lying, Uchiha Madara's been dead for quite some time now," snarled Itachi, briefly tensing at the name before getting ready to pounce, "as far as I know, you're just an imposter using his name."

"Believe what you will, it won't matter," said the imposter-Madara, not even bothering to get ready for a fight, "but I'm pretty sure you know that you won't be able to fight me in any case...even if you've recently awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan."

As he scanned and scrutinized his opponent, Itachi knew that Fake-Madara was telling the truth: point number one, he'd found that even if 'Madara' was not who he said he was, the high levels of chakra that he was putting out were more than enough to make it near impossible to even fight him; point number two, he'd been spending time running around killing everyone he knew was part of the coup, which meant that he was tired and that would give his opponent another advantage in his favor (the fact that he was also using this opportunity to train up on the use of his Mangekyō Sharingan didn't help matters any); and point number three, the fact that he was not even getting ready to fight meant that his opponent had a hidden ace up his sleeve to make the fight even easier for him.

Either way he saw it, he knew he'd already lost; Itachi knew that even though he'd meant for some of his Uchiha clansmen to survive his cleaning house, almost all of them were dead because of this masked man. This was already grounds for being labelled as a traitor in his case. It was then that his mind was made up: he re-sheathed his sword and continued to glare at the fake Madara. "What do you want from me?"

For some reason, he could feel that 'Madara' was grinning under his mask. "Tell me, have you heard of the organization known as 'Akatsuki'?"

"Should I know?"

"We are an organization dedicated towards bringing peace to the world," continued 'Madara', "our objective is to capture all nine Bijū, and use them all to destroy this world, and create peace from the ashes. And I'm pretty sure we could use a man of your talents. Will you join us?"

Whether this man was a lunatic or not, Itachi didn't know...but what he _**did**_ know was that something was wrong with this man and his ambitions. He also had the feeling that he would do something drastic if he refused this 'offer'. There was only one thing he could do. "I have some conditions for you before I do so."

"What are they?"

…

[Meanwhile, in Baihe Huayin's Mansion...]

He was tired from being worked really hard, although the last 'exercise' he had to go through wasn't so bad as much as it was awkward; as Naruto sat down, waiting for his turn to use the shower, he started thinking back on the reason he was so worn out; the training in the Baihe style of hand-to-hand combat during the past few days was more than a bit demanding…in the morning, he was to do various physically-demanding jobs with Meilan. Such jobs included running around with heavy buckets filled with ingredients to make soap hung on a pole across his shoulders to the various baths up and down the slopes, helping to carve out new baths without power tools, even the occasional moving around of new deliveries of cargo into the clan's warehouse. The motivation to do this was that both him and Meilan were being paid for their jobs as well; each of them were being paid by the hour, and so the more jobs they did by the time the morning was over, the more they were paid. '_Well, at least I made some money the past few days.'_

Once the morning work was done, Meilan did such things as to step on his back with one foot while pulling his arms backwards without splitting any muscles, pull on his leg and rotate it in the socket, and even helping to stretch his neck before Naruto had to do the same to her. This was to help in flexibility, which was a cornerstone in Baihe-style fighting. Given how badly Meilan had beaten him the other day, Naruto knew that it was true...and so he was willing to take the painful stretching techniques the Baihe-style fighting required for the foundation.

In the afternoon, they would go through some drills, before sparring. So far, Naruto seemed to get the idea of footwork from watching Meilan's steps...it didn't change the fact that he was reminded exactly of what happened should he make a misstep and lose his line of center, when he felt Meilan's low kick tripping him over before throwing him into the sand. It really made him dizzy trying to copy her footwork, but it gave him a general idea of what he needed to do to make his fighting style less sloppy. '_No matter how you spin this, Meilan really does make it look easy.'_

After sparring for a few hours, he had to go to the inn Yamato-sensei was staying at to learn shinobi skills. Now don't get him wrong, didn't think Iruka was a bad teacher, but he did find some of the man's lessons to be a bit boring...Yamato-sensei however, was very direct and had a hands-on approach to teaching, which was probably easier for student and teacher considering he was his only student. He also made Naruto read by threatening to tie him down and make him watch as he ate ramen right in front of him if he so much as fell asleep when he was supposed to be reading the books he'd brought over from Konoha. '_Well, at least they are books I got for my birthday.'_

Finally, at night, they were to settle down and massage each other. '_Come to think of it, why is massage part of their training?"_ was his thought at the time until Meilan walked into the room in a swimsuit, covered her hands in some kind of oil, and started pressing and rubbing on his back and his joints, melting all the tension away in his muscles...almost turning into mush from the way she massaged him; which was a surprise, given that he knew how strong she really was. He'd turned red and had a massive nosebleed when he learned that he would be doing the same for Meilan...and it was a painful massage for her until she taught him how to massage the right way. He started off as worse than an amatuer, but then again, he was also trying hard not to scratch her with his claws; he got a little better over three days though. He remembered how her body felt as he rubbed her back, her normally-firm muscles softening under his touch as he got better and better at massage. '_At this rate, maybe I can be a masseur if being Hokage doesn't work out.'_

Aside from that, his days were actually very nice. And yet, he couldn't shake the momentary chill he felt up his back just now. '_Did something terrible happen? Nah! Hokage-jiji is a really good leader, I'm pretty sure that it's not something that he can't handle.'_

{Play: "Cursed Shinshū Fields" by Rei Kondoh from "Okami"}

Just then, Yamato walked into the room looking more serious than usual. "Yamato-sensei? What's going on? Did something happen?"

After debating with himself as to whether to tell Naruto, Yamato sighed. "Naruto I just got word from the village. The Uchiha's were wiped out."

Naruto felt like his whole world had collapsed; two of his best friends, Setsuna and Setsuka, were both Uchihas. "Setsuka and Setsuna, are they…"

Yamato sadly smiled. "As far as I know your friends are okay; a bit traumatized, but they're fine. They...were the only survivors we can account for."

"And their mom?"

"She's in critical condition from being hit with a very powerful genjutsu, but she's still alive."

Naruto fell to his knees, sighing in relief. While didn't care much for the Uchiha clan by and large, there were exceptions in that clan that never made it to his naughty list: Setsuka-chan and Setsuna-chan being among them, as well as Itachi-aniki whom he'd seen once or twice, and Mikoto-sama who was really nice to him even during his stay in the orphanage. He was not as worried about Itachi, because he knew deep down inside from the first meeting that the eldest of Mikoto-sama's children could take care of himself. "Yamato-sensei...at least let me send a letter to them. I want them to know I am...what's that word?"

"Sympathetic?" Yamato supplied. Naruto nodded. "Very well. I don't think they'll be able to read that letter anytime soon though; but last I heard, Hazama-sensei was treating them. If that's the case, then they're in good hands."

Naruto nodded; Yamato-sensei was right, they were in good hands-Hazama Kurō was his personal doctor and had treated some of his more serious wounds, and so they'll probably be out of the hospital soon enough. He ran to go write the letter while Meilan walked in with her bathrobe, her hair down, and a curious look on her face. "What's so special about these girls Yamato-san?"

Yamato sadly smiled. "Uchiha Setsuna and Uchiha Setsuka were among Naruto's only friends in Konoha. From my observations, they were also quite smitten with him."

Meilan had a sympathetic look on her face. She couldn't imagine what it was like, but she could feel his pain. She saw his dedication to the people he cared about; and would make sure that he was strong enough to protect his precious people, and this was a promise to herself!

...

_**A/N: And this wraps up the second chapter. I plan to take this story slower than last time, and that means I'm going to show more of what Naruto is going to go through while training under the Baihe clan, as well as what is happening in Konoha while he's gone. Before I forget, ladies and gentlemen, one more time: a round of applause for Soleneus and UnitedOsprey1991 for joining in on this story. **_


	3. The Singers

_**A/N: Hello again ladies and gentlemen, I must thank you all for your loyal following of this story...although I wish people would be more confident and post a review instead of simply clicking the follow/favorite button. To those of you still following, especially to you faithful followers to Dungeon Fighter Online, I have a new poll going on that will have a much more direct impact on the story; I've been asked by a reviewer as to whether or not Naruto will start off as an Asura, which gave me the idea for a new poll on my account. To those of my readers who have not played Dungeon Fighter Online, I will post the links to each of the subclasses for you to better understand what your choices are. Aside from that, do read and review, would you kindly?**_

...

{Play: "Prayer~Mithra's Theme~" by Chiyako Fukuda, from "Asura's Wrath"}

[Baihe Village-the end of the first month...]

Finally! It was the weekend! Naruto sighed with relief, as had been going through the month doing a lot of work throughout the village as part of his training. The only time he'd ever get a free day from it all was during the weekends, after which came the backbreaking work. It got even harder as he was required to wear weights on his ankles and wrists as he was going about doing those jobs...the kind where the weights were all rods that could be inserted into the twelve pockets in the strap. Right now, the ones he was wearing each had 5-lb weighted iron rods inserted to make him weigh around 240 pounds heavier. Couple that with the fact that he had to haul around more and bigger buckets this time around, and he had to deal with quite possibly the hardest weight training ever! And even worse was that he had to wear the weights everywhere he went-even in the freaking restroom! If he took off any of the weights on a day that was not a weekend, Huayin-sama would increase his weights sooner (she'd been increasing the weight at a steadily growing rate per week).

"Oh man, this week was tiring." Naruto moaned as he slid into the hot springs. The aching in his muscles started to dissipate as the hot water washed over them. He thought about the last month. In hindsight, he did learn a bit about why he was going through this kind of training...the hard work in the morning was compensating for weeks of neglected training from the academy as well as developing his muscles, the midday stretch and sparring was to work on his flexibility and his footwork, and the nightly massage therapy was to help him both relax and learn control.

It was not long until thoughts of the training he'd been through had been replaced with that of his Setsuna and Setsuka. Their family was destroyed in a single night, and their mother was in a coma. As an orphan, he could not relate to the very thought of losing his family; but to actually see the killer must have been traumatizing.

'_Setsuna, Setsuka...I will come back strong enough to protect you and find your family's killer.' _Naruto thought.

{Play: "Build that Wall" by Darren Korb from "Bastion"}

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard humming in the spring right next to his. Why did that voice sound familiar? Naruto was just about to move his eye to the hole in the partition to see who it was that was in the spring, when he remembered exactly why it was put up: one, because this was supposed to be a separate bath; and two, since this was a Baihe woman, he'd very likely be clobbered to death, Huayin-sama be damned!

But the more he heard it, the more it sounded beautiful and happy and he couldn't help but take a peek. As Naruto looked into the hole, he was amazed by what he saw; even though he was looking at her back, he knew that the singer was Meilan. She was in her own world as she sang and Naruto couldn't help but think she was pretty. As young as she was, Meilan hadn't developed the features of her mother yet, but all that training did her body good. She must've come here to relax as well, considering she'd been going through the exact same training he was.

The tone she was humming in seemed to reflect her joy, and in Naruto's mind she had a lot to be happy for: she was born in a well-to-do family, she was the heiress to said family, and she had a lot of people who cared for her.

What did he have? Nothing, not even a good name. He hadn't been able to find Uzumaki anywhere in the archives.

Although, from what he'd heard of her childhood growing up with only her mother, he was sort of reminded that you can't have everything in life. Naruto had heard that her father was a good man that had died of a disease a long time ago when she was a baby...ironically, he was also a really good doctor. But at least Meilan still had her mother, and she turned out to be such a good girl too.

His thoughts were broken when heard the clearing of a throat, and Naruto's new view of through the peephole was of Meilan with her arms crossed, and pretty much looking through the same hole and into his blue eye.

"Enjoying the show, pervert?" Meilan said with her temper rising.

Naruto gulped as he could feel the killing intent from the fence. "No...I mean, yes! But its not what you think! I heard you singing and I thought it was beautiful and I couldn't help but stare."

Meilan's temper died down as she started to blush. "T-Thank you." Meilan slid down into the water with her back against the wall.

"You really liked my singing?" Meilan asked a little hesitantly.

"Yeah...you seemed so happy." Naruto said.

"Well, taking singing lessons on the side also helped."

"You can do that?" Naruto asked.

Meilan nodded though Naruto couldn't see it. "I can help you when we aren't training. Its like our martial arts training. It won't help you with your footwork as much as dancing will, but it'll still teach you a bit more about timing...which you still need to get down."

The springs were silent for a few moments. It was at this time that Meilan chose to break the ice. "What did you think of my singing?"

Naruto sighed. "It was very happy. And you have so much to be happy about. A mother who loves you, a family that cares for you, and a name to live up to. Me I don't have anything."

"It's not all fun and games though," sighed Meilan, a tint of depression in her voice, "I've not been able to get a training partner mostly because I'm that high up on the food chain around here. People are either showing me preferential treatment, or are too scared to train with me...which is why I appreciate our time together more, Naruto."

Naruto then realized something about what he'd heard. It must've been lonely, having nobody to spar and train with for quite some time. That must've been another reason GSD-sensei (wherever he was right now) brought him here; he wanted to kill two birds with the same stone, and have Meilan train him in the basics while he partnered up with her and made her life a little less lonely. It also helped that they developed a sort of kinship with each other. "You think you can teach me to sing too?"

His answer was a light chuckle from Meilan. "No offense, but I've heard your voice when you talk...it's a surprise you haven't broken any windows when you screamed that day when we were bringing rope from the rope factory."

Oh, now there was a day that Naruto wished he could forget. Once, when he was bringing rope from the rope factory, Naruto accidentally stepped into a closing loop and got tangled up worse than that teacher that threw him out for asking a question, and then he was dragged through the factory by the ankle before he was found in a ball of rope hanging upside-down. '_Well, at least I wasn't tarred and feathered.'_

"Don't worry though," comforted Meilan, "I'm pretty sure we'll find something for you to do. We just have to find what agrees with you."

Naruto smiled and the two relaxed for a while.

...

[Meanwhile, at the Hyūga Compound]

As he watched the two girls sparring with each other, Hiashi could not help but be proud of himself. To him, Hinata seemed to have an increase in confidence as of late...it wasn't much, but it was still progress. As the girls sparred Hinata looked to be fighting with a focus not seen in her ever.

Hiashi could only continue to grin. He had Naruto to thank for this level of progress; he had found Naruto talking to Hinata on that day to have been a boon to his soul. Now don't get him wrong, neither he nor his brother Hizashi hated the boy in the first place; not even close. It's just that he knew the boy's Uzumaki origins, and as such, he knew that he too carried the Curse of Kazan in his blood. If anything, he pitied the boy for the burden he had to shoulder on that left arm of his.

There was a reason that the Hyūga clan never shopped at any of the shinobi supply stores for weapons. Like the Uzumaki, the Hyūga clan had descended from the Ōtsusuki clan. Which brother the Uzumaki clan descended from, Hiashi didn't know, but he _**did**_ know that the Hyūga were descended from the Rikudō Sennin's brother and inherited his Byakugan. However, being that they too descended from the Ōtsusuki clan, they also inherited the Curse of Kazan. Fear of awakening the Curse had gotten so bad even to this day that the Hyūgas feared that even picking up a kunai had the effect of bringing out the bloodlust that victims of the Curse were known to suffer through, driving them into a murderous rampage. And that fear is why the Hyūga clan is one of Konoha's premiere taijutsu specialists.

He watched as the two girls stopped, and started panting…they were reading each others' next move, trying to see who would attack first. They both moved in to attack at the same time! "Enough!" Hiashi called out, causing his daughters to stop in midair, "Hanabi, go ahead and clean up. Hinata, I'd like a word with you before you do the same."

The girls bowed and Hanabi left while Hinata approached her father. "Hinata I've been impressed with your progress over the last month. What exactly brought this change?"

Hinata smiled. "When you told me Naruto-kun left the village last month for personalized training, I wanted to get stronger for him so that I would not fail him and can stand beside him. As his friend...and one day his love."

Hiashi chuckled. Actually, when he was called up for that council meeting days ago, he was actually surprised that Hiruzen had actually worked up the spine to put the Civilian Council in its place, reminding them that there was in fact an Uzumaki living in Konoha once...in fact, two Uzumaki had lived in Konoha before, and that they were a prestigious clan as well. This was cause to put the boy under the Clan Restoration Act as soon as possible. "I hope you realize there are others more than likely after him?"

The expression on Hinata's face was clear; she was upset, but she kept the frown from forming. "Yes but if they love him for the right reasons then I can't be mad at him loving others. I understand that he is the last of his clan and he would need multiple lovers, but I'm not selfish."

Hiashi smiled, he had such a mature daughter for her age. "That's good. Now go get cleaned up for dinner."

As soon as he turned to leave, Hinata bowed and think, Hiashi had been cold to her not too long ago...not so much because he didn't love her (heavens forbid, he saw a lot of her recently-passed mother Hitomi in her), but because he was afraid for her future. If the Hyūga elders didn't see any improvement in her worthy of being the heiress of the clan, they would have marked her with the Caged Bird seal. He'd planned to have her disowned in that case; he'd much rather have disowned her and bore the brunt of her tears from being separated from her sister, than to watch her broken and enslaved with that accursed seal on her forehead.

He shivered at the thought; there was no way in hell his daughters would be marked, not if Hiashi had any say in it! And as he began to think even further on the future, he began to wonder. What would the future be like with Hinata at the helm? '_Perhaps Hinata could change the clan,'_ he thought, '_maybe she will be the one to put those old fogeys in their place in the future; and maybe with Naruto's help, assuming he has mastered his Curse, she will bring a new era to the Hyūga clan…'_

…

[Higurashi Arsenal...]

All was quiet at the Higurashi Arsenal until the sound of crashing glass was heard; someone had broken out the window of Higurashi Hiten's arsenal. As the onlookers watched the thief running around with a box of weapons in his hands, their only thought was that this person was either brave or stupid to rob the man's store. It just so happened that a bun-haired girl was chasing the man down, throwing weapons of all sorts at him. This was the store owner's daughter Tenten.

The girl managed to get a lucky shot with a knife, and hit the thief in the back of the knee. Unfortunately, the man had a partner that was running in the opposite direction and was out of Tenten's throwing range...at least, until a large man had leaped out from the crowd, landed in front of the thief, grabbed him by the neck, and headbutted him four times in rapid succession before he chokeslammed him to the ground. As soon as his interceptor stood to his full height, the man had recovered enough to look up five feet of the scary-looking man's seven-foot height and into the dark-lensed goggles staring back down into him. He whimpered as he was picked up and power bombed into the dirt road, knocking him out.

"Well that takes care of that. Now to call the ANBU." He turned to his daughter who was picking up the thrown weapons, while dragging her own victim towards him. "Are you okay pumpkin?"

Tenten looked up with a triumphant smile. "Yeah daddy, those guys got what was coming to them!"

Hiten looked down at his daughter with a smile of his own, before turning to frown at the would-be thieves. "Damn thieves," he grumbled to himself, kicking the conscious thief relatively lightly in the side, "they seem to be getting braver and braver by the year. I mean, come on! You'd think they'd have learned their lesson by now!"

"Well, with the prices your weapons fetch on the black market *cough*, I'm not so surprised, *hack-hack*" said a male voice, "they're so high, that they only- *cough-cough-hack* they only fall short of the ones fetched by master swordsmiths like Masamune *cough*."

Recognizing the voice, Hiten could not help but chuckle as he turned to face the speaker. "Actually, that _**is**_ a compliment. So how's it going, Hayate?"

In front of him was a sickly-looking fellow with a bandana wearing a jōnin vest. On his hip was a two foot ninjatō with a blue handle and a square tsuba. "Could be better. So, you visited Mikoto-sama yet?"

Hiten sighed as he looked down, his strong and thick shoulders sagging in sadness. "She's still out like a candle. Hazama-sensei was able to stabilize her, but she's not likely to wake up anytime soon."

Hayate nodded understandingly. Many people had heard of the poor man's doomed relationship with the Uchiha matriarch. Such a shame, because from what he'd heard, the two of them would've made a great couple in spite of the fact that Hiten was not strictly speaking a shinobi (which was impressive, given the fact that some of the thieves that hit his store were nuke-nin)...well, were it not for that asshole Fugaku's parents arranging a marriage with Mikoto at the last minute; and just as Hiten was about to propose to her. Hell, even _**he**_ was surprised when he heard that she had kids with the prick. Hiten clenched his fist; Setsuka and Setsuna should've been his kids at least, maybe even Itachi could've turned out better. But when he met Tenten's mother, she helped him fix the hole in his heart...she wasn't able to replace Mikoto, being a totally different person and all, but he eventually found that he loved her all the same.

Even looking at his daughter reminded Hiten of Mariko. He'd hoped Tenten would inherit her mother's looks...and hopefully not her skills with a kusarigama. He'd been on the business end of that weapon too often, and he'd shivered at the idea of Tenten doing kinky things with the weapon's chain too.

Speaking of Tenten, Hiten turned to see his daughter with a wistful look in her eyes. "Something on your mind, princess?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Tenten turned to face her father before taking in what he'd said to her. "No just worried about, Naruto. I missed him coming into store."

Hiten chuckled. "Awww...does my pumpkin have a crush?"

"DAD!" This got the girl to furiously blush and her father to laugh. Hayate would've joined in, were it not for his coughing fit.

"Oh relax pumpkin, you go get ready for bed. I'm going to talk to Hayate for a minute."

"Okay daddy." Tenten said as she happily walked back to the apartment above the arsenal.

Hiten sighed. "She's more and more like her mother everyday."

Hayate nodded. "If she is as half as good as Mariko was, and if she inherited your strength, I'm pretty sure she will make a great kunoichi. I'd be happy to take her on as an apprentice until she graduates."

He had a reason to smile; after all, her mother was already a pretty skilled kunoichi as it were. A shame she had to die a few months after the Kyūbi attack; for which he never blamed Naruto. Come to think of it, every time he visited, the boy was like a wayward son he never had. "Thanks. I know she would be in good hands if that's the case. So, you here for regular maintenance on your sword?"

"Yeah," answered Hayate, unslinging the sword from his hip and presenting it respectfully to Hiten, "I know I take very good care of ol' Wangetsu here, polishing him and all, but I still can't match your eye."

With the darkened lenses of his welding goggles lifted up, Hiten unsheathed the blade that Hayate had given to him, and began inspecting it. "Hmm, you're right...you _**do**_ take very good care of him. Not bad for a hand-me-down, actually," he said, still analyzing the sword known as Wangetsu before re-sheathing it and handing it back to Hayate, "just keep doing what you're doing, and I'll guarantee that your father won't be rolling in his grave for another twenty or so years."

There was a dejected look on Hayate's face when he heard that upon hearing that his father's sword was nearing the end of its lifespan. "Well, at least I know I still have plenty of time with him," he said, before slinging it back on his hip, "so, you going to try again with Mikoto?"

"I honestly don't know, Hayate. And besides, it's way too soon to tell."

"And what's going to happen with the twins?"

"The Hokage's arranged for them to live with me until Miko-chan wakes up. Whether they're going to live with me or not, I can't say for certain."

Hayate let out a sigh when he heard that. "Well don't take too long like last time. Neither of you are getting any younger."

The grunt of noncommittal that Hiten let out seemed to say much more than words ever could as the two men went their separate ways.

…

[Uchiha Fugaku's Mansion...]

The night was lovely, and that was the view that Uchiha Setsuna found herself waking up to. Stars twinkling in the distance, but it was the moon that took center-stage in the picturesque scene she was looking up at. Both she and her sister had stayed in the hospital for the first few weeks of their rehabilitation in bed. Now, they were tired from packing up essentials to move in with the Higurashi family tomorrow.

"Can't sleep, Setsuna-chan?" asked a groggy Setsuka, looking up from the king-sized bed they both shared.

"Yeah."

"Don't worry," answered Setsuka, sitting up to regard her younger sister, "I'm pretty sure Naruto-kun will be fine."

"It's not that I'm disagreeing with you nee-chan, it's just that it's finally hit me that apart from us and Kaa-san, we're all that's left of the Uchiha clan. And the fact that there were two nii-chan's, now _**that**_ is what really got me thinking about what's going on."

"Now's not the time." sighed Setsuka.

"Oh come on!" scoffed Setsuna, turning her head away from Setsuka, "Don't tell me you don't want to find out why Itachi-nii did what he did! I bet you don't even care!"

"OF COURSE I DO!" snapped Setsuka, surprising her younger sister, "Heavens above, I want to find out why Itachi murdered the rest of our family so badly, that I'm willing to kill for any leads as to where he's going so that we can question him! But I'm not going to let this goal control us!"

This was actually one of the few times Setsuka-chan raised her voice, and it was at this point that Setsuna shut up in shame. Setsuna let out a calming breath, and started to calm down before she pulled her sister into a loving hug that she reciprocated. "The sad truth is, as we are now, we're too weak to do anything about it. We need to wait...to bide our time so that we can get stronger."

"G-gomen neechan."

"It's okay imōto-chan."

As the sisters broke the hug, the two of them chose to watch the stars together. "So, what did you think of Hiten-san, Setsuna?"

"I think he looks like a big bear. And I like his daughter too."

"Surprisingly, he's nice too," added Setsuka, thinking on their first encounter with the large wall of muscle known as Higurashi Hiten, "I think him and kaa-san were friends in the past if she told Itachi-nii to visit him regularly."

"Did you see the way he looked at kaa-san? I think they were also lovers at one point."

"Well, maybe we can ask him when we see him again tomorrow. You got everything packed up?"

"Oh please! What kind of an idiot do you take me for?

"Well, it's just that you rush so much that you tend to miss objects."

Upon hearing that, Setsuna let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, let's just go to bed. We'll talk some more tomorrow."

Setsuka let out a mirthful laugh as her sister lay back down on the bed to get some sleep. She then turned her attention back to the moon for a bit...the letter that Naruto had sent a while ago was a reminder that there were people that sincerely cared. With their mother in a coma, Itachi-nii on the run, and Naruto far away on his training trip, the only person she had left was Setsuna-chan, and she was in turn, all that Setsuna-chan had left. '_Naruto-kun, thanks for caring. Wherever you are, please stay safe...for the both of us; we're going to need you in the future.'_

With her silent prayer finished, Setsuka went back to sleep, throwing her arm over Setsuna to shield her from nightmares. What she didn't know was that Setsuna rolled around to hug her sister in return; they would love and protect each other for life, and that was an oath each sister had promised each other in silence.

...

{Play: "Comedy" by Daisuke Ishiwatari, from "Blazblue"}

[Baihe Village-the next morning]

The two of them walked hand-in-hand down the street...well, if you could call being dragged screaming around the entire village by the wrist like a rag doll by an excited Meilan running ahead 'walking hand-in-hand'. "MEILAN!" he cried out above the sounds of being dragged around. Naruto had to shift his weight in midair rather quickly to avoid getting hit by a street lamp...then a signpost...then a mailbox...and finally a bench.

Meilan stopped in front of a store with a screeching halt, getting Naruto to smack into her shoulder. When he looked up, he saw that they were in front of a music store; the sign was written entirely in kanji and read as the "Peaceful Preacher".

"What are we doing here Meilan?" Naruto asked curiously, still panting from the excitement.

Meilan just smiled. "I remembered our talk from last night, and I figured instead of singing, we could find an instrument for you to play."

He was still a bit sore about his singing being insulted, and so Naruto crossed his arms. "So, what will learning instrument do exactly?"

Meilan just giggled. "By learning an instrument, you learn fine motor skills and even learn some chakra control. If you think about it, a ninja needs to adapt to any situation, and being a musician is a great cover. Besides, music is a part of a lot of Baihe clan members' training regimen because it also teaches timing and rhythm...not all of us who learn music become travelling musicians, but we keep the lessons learned all the same."

With a sigh, Naruto conceded the point as they walked into the store. Unlike Konoha, this village was much kinder to him...no glaring, no under-the-breath insults, no pointing at his red arm (which was more recent); he was being treated like a normal person in spite of his condition. Case in point, the store owner, upon hearing the door open, glanced over, then smiled and bowed. "Ah, Melian-sama and friend. Welcome to my humble store. May I ask what you are looking for?"

Meilan waved her arms around to Naruto. "My friend is interested in purchasing a musical instrument. I'm doing this mainly because his voice sounds like a drowned cat."

The indignant look on Naruto's face had caused the owner to chuckle. "Well that's fine, I believe in the instrument choosing the player. Please, have a look around at my wares.

Naruto started walking around looking at the intricate instruments. He walked through the many instruments in the store, each of them having a unique origin: drum kits and keyboards from Kumogakure; taikō drums and shamisen from Iwa; even a piano and saxophone from Amegakure. However, all thoughts were thrown out the window the second he stopped in front of a particular instrument. It had a semi circular body with a hollowed out circle in the middle of it. It had six steel strings pulled taut over its long neck and was an orangish red in color.

"Oh, such a discerning eye my friend," observed the storekeeper, "the blueprints for this beauty was found by a curious Kumo genin and he now makes a fortune making similar guitars."

The shop owner gently took the guitar down and handed it to Naruto. Naruto held it in a left-handed stance, and started plucking the strings with the claws of his red arm to play a small riff, thankful that his training so far had forced him to be ambidextrous.

Meilan upon hearing the sound coming from the guitar, and remembering the beat, started to hum and then started to sing.

"_I dig my hole, you build that wall,_

_I dig my hole, you build that wall,_

_One day that wall is gonna fall._

_Go and build that city on a hill,_

_Go and build that city on a hill,_

_One day those tears are gonna spill._

_So build that wall and build it strong,_

'_cause, we'll be there before too long._

_Go and build that wall up to the sky,_

_Go and build that wall up to the sky,_

_One day your bird is gonna fly._

_Go and build that wall until it's done,_

_Go and build that wall until it's done,_

_But now you've got nowhere to run._

_So build that wall and build it strong,_

'_cause, we'll be there before too long."_

Once the both of them had finished with their little duet, both Naruto and Meilan had heard the sound of clapping surrounding them, hitting them from all sides like a flood. Maybe even a bit of whooping here and there. The two turned to see the rest of the store clapping for them. Blushing they bowed.

"I see a lot of potential in the two of you," said a feminine voice, causing the entire store to settle down and make way for an elegant-looking woman in her mid- to late-twenties walking around in flowing white robes, "Meilan-chan, your voice is impeccable as always. But your friend, rough as he is with his technique, has a lot of potential."

"Auntie 'Lin!" called out Meilan, running towards the older woman. Meilan hugged her as the woman known as Auntie 'Lin hugged her back. "How are you my precious niece?"

"Uh, Meilan, who is this?" asked Naruto, curious as to the identity of this woman.

After remembering who exactly was in the store with her, Meilan blushed. "Oh! I'm sorry, Naruto, I'd like for you to meet my aunt, Baihe Xianglin...one of the finest musicians in the clan, and is also one of the clan's traveling priestesses."

Naruto widened his eyes and bowed to the elder Baihe woman. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Xianglin-sama"

"Please, no need for formalities," said Xianglin, looking back at Naruto, studying him up and down, even on his demonic red arm (which he tried to hide), "Is this the first time you played that instrument?"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, well it felt right in my hands."

"Excellent," she said, "you may make a great guitarist yet." She then turned her attention back to her niece, "So how's that cousin of mine doing since I've been gone?"

"Mom's fine, as usual," answered Meilan, "though I think she said she was seeing Auntie Mulan a little later today."

Xianglin let out a nervous chuckle. "That troublesome sister of mine. What is she here for now?"

"Mulan?" asked Naruto.

"She is Auntie 'Lin's younger sister," replied Meilan, "she owns a casino far away from here. Last I heard, it was because she got disowned from the family for causing a lot of trouble in the village; but she keeps coming back once in a while, and I don't know why."

"Well, regardless if she's disowned or not, she's still my little sister...and she seems to be very loyal to the family for a black sheep."

Naruto had no idea what Xianglin was talking about, but went to the counter to pay for the guitar. The owner had raised his hands in protest. "There's no need to pay, young man," he said, "you brought in a lot of customers for me today with that duet you and Meilan-sama played. This guitar is on the house...under the condition that you take care of it."

"Thanks!"

With that done, Naruto and Meilan left the store with Xianglin, heading back to the mansion.

…

[Streets of Konoha...]

It was a sunny day in Konohagakure no Sato as Kiba and Akamaru chuckled to themselves into their fists. They'd been waiting on the rooftops, watching for their target to come out of her den...this was to add to the punishment for what happened just last week and-oh ho! What do you know? The target had shown her face!

The purple hair, the bullying attitude he saw her strutting about with, and her two cronies acting as yes-men exiting the same building, this was no doubt Ami. That girl thought she was so high-and-mighty the other day when Kiba saw her bullying that Haruno girl...now don't get him wrong, he never really liked Sakura, but one thing Kiba shared with Naruto aside from his aspirations on being Hokage was that he didn't really like bullies AT ALL! Not simply for any idea of justice, but because he always believed in a fair fight…which was why he gave a lot of respect to Naruto as a rival that day he saved that Hyūga girl Hinata from that gang of bullies. Since then, he'd taken on a personal mission to put bullies in their place by performing Naruto's fair share of pranks while he's out of town

Kiba looked down to regard the puppy that was in his hoodie. "You know what to do, boy."

With a bark of assent, Akamaru obediently left his perch in Kiba's jacket to initiate the plan. Meanwhile, Kiba himself took out a pair of binoculars and watched from afar…this whole thing could fall apart at the seams if one mistake happened at any stage of the plan.

Ah! There was Akamaru now! And he was running around with Ami's dango in his mouth! And here he goes, running away, and leading her into the prank the two of them had taken two days to set! He waited impatiently, the urge to pull the rope, tugging at it gently to pull it a bit taut without tipping their hand. Just a little closer now...closer...CLOSER...NOW!

Giving the rope a very hard pull, Kiba waited. "It's not just a prank, bitch...IT'S A TRAP!"

The force of the pull triggered at exactly the right moment, where it released a string holding down a catapult, that flung water balloons at Ami and her cronies, just as they had gotten in the middle of a crowd. The resulting explosion of liquids splashing on her and her gang had the effect of making the three of them look a bit...yellowish, let's just say. Overkill much? Maybe, but somebody had to put that girl in her place, and he doubted that the little trick he'd heard Ino pulled was enough to get the message across.

The laughs caused by the reaction to this prank were of epic proportions, and Akamaru had just gotten back to Kiba to bask in the revenge they'd gotten from Ami. After having had their fair share of laughs, the two of them had run away from the staging area after burning the rope that was used to spring the trap.

Once all evidence of their attack had been eliminated, Kiba and Akamaru took the time to settle down and think back. Things had been quite different after Naruto left on that training trip of his, the pranking spree not included, but that only served to make things more interesting in his eyes; because now he had the job of topping all of Naruto's biggest pranks, and so far he'd done a very good job of topping three so far.

Then came the next thing, which was what he'd heard from his mom that day she came back from the council meeting; Naruto was the last of a clan? Kiba took the news quite surprisingly well (if with a tinge of envy, according to what he'd heard about being the last of a clan entailed). Hana on the other hand seemed to be confused...in all honesty, every time Naruto came to the house, things were quieter when the dogs seemed to bow their heads before him like an alpha, until he went up and played with them and things became a little livelier.

Hana's confusion came from the fact that, according to what he'd heard from her, she honestly didn't know what she was going to do with that information-especially with the fact that being the last of his clan, Naruto was pretty much eligible to choose his mates at any age the second he hits thirteen. Hana was considered one of the ice queens along with Kurenai Yuhi, Anko Mitarashi (to a lesser extent), and Yugao Uzuki. As the second-eldest female in the house, Hana was more than likely going to be married off, leaving Kiba the heir. From one standpoint, he was excited about the prospect (he was her brother, he was supposed to be supportive), but at the same time he knew Hana would be a more effective leader; and as her brother he wanted to protect her. Now, he knew Naruto wasn't a bad guy, his defense of Hinata notwithstanding, he just didn't feel Hana was worthy of his attention just yet. If he was going to court Hana, he was going to face him when he came back. Which was why he was working so hard at performing his friend's share of pranking...to be better at stealth so that he can catch Naruto off-guard.

As he ran away, he could only think that he was one step closer to being even stronger...assuming he was able to get out of the academy in the first place. '_Just you wait, Naruto, I'll make you work for Hana's heart as soon as you get back.'_

…

[Ichiraku Ramen-lunchtime...]

Work was very hard, and it was just one customer! The Ichiraku family had been running left and right trying to serve their loyal customer at the moment. Apart from Umino Iruka and Uzumaki Naruto, Akimichi Choji frequented the ramen stand very often; this time, he seemed to be eating more ramen than usual.

"You seem to be on an eating Marathon, Choji," said Teuchi, looking down on the...round boy with caring eyes, "I'm serious, you're slurping down my ramen faster than normal. Feeling lonely without Naruto-kun around?"

Choji placed the bowl down. "Yeah, he was one of the only people that didn't make fun of my weight. Didn't hurt his appetite matched mine."

"Troublesome," said a very lazy voice from behind, walking up to take a seat right next to Choji, "look, if you're going to hide here, you might as well let me share your spot."

"Ino hassling you again, Shikamaru?"

"You know it!" sighed Shikamaru, "It's always Setsuka-chan this, and Setsuna-chan that! I swear, it's all I hear about whenever she's not talking about some blond kid that talked to her about a few flowers."

The look on his face made it clear that Choji was confused about what he'd just heard. "Naruto was talking to her about flowers?"

"I'm guessing that's the case," answered Shikamaru, nodding in agreement, "jeez, who would've thought that life would've been even more troublesome without Naruto around."

Midway through the conversation, just as Choji was about to say something, the two of them had heard a pretty sweet voice come from the stand across. The girl's hot pink hair stated that she was a member of the Haruno family, but what made Haruno Miyuki different was that unlike the rest of the women in her family, she had a rather good singing voice that she took full advantage of to attract customers to her sweets stand very effectively. It also helped that she was a rather good sweets cook; dango balls stuffed with an applesauce paste, sakè-soaked mochi filled with sesame paste in mitarashi sauce, even almond cakes and the occasional sweet onigiri.

Such was her skill in making delights for the tongue and the ear, that she made an arrangement with the Ichiraku family; in exchange for allowing her to work in the same area, Miyuki was to use her voice to bring customers over for some ramen...and in exchange, the Ichiraku family would send customers her way for desert.

Miyuki looked at the crowd gathered around her stand, and smiled. "This song is dedicated to a person who never gave up, even when the sky was at its darkest. Wherever you are now, I hope you're bringing light to someone's life right now."

"_You and me, we used to be together_

_Every day together, always_

_I really feel that I'm losing my best friend_

_I can't believe this could be the end_

_It looks as though you're letting go_

_And if it's real, well I don't want to know_

_Don't speak_

_I know just what you're saying_

_So please stop explaining_

_Don't tell me 'cause it hurts_

_Don't speak_

_I know what you're thinking_

_I don't need your reasons_

_Don't tell me 'cause it hurts_

_Our memories, they can be inviting_

_But some are altogether mighty frightening_

_As we die, both you and I_

_With my head in my hands, I sit and cry_

_Don't speak_

_I know just what you're saying_

_So please stop explaining_

_Don't tell me 'cause it hurts, no, no_

_Don't speak_

_I know what you're thinking_

_And I don't need your reasons_

_Don't tell me 'cause it hurts_

_It's all ending_

_I gotta stop pretending who we are_

_You and me_

_I can see us dying, are we?_

_Don't speak_

_I know just what you're saying_

_So please stop explaining_

_Don't tell me 'cause it hurts, no, no_

_Don't speak_

_I know what you're thinking_

_And I don't need your reasons_

_Don't tell me 'cause it hurts_

_Don't tell me 'cause it hurts_

_I know what you're saying_

_So please stop explaining_

_Don't speak, don't speak, don't speak, oh_

_I know what you're thinking_

_And I don't need your reasons_

_I know you're good, I know you're good_

_I know you're real good, oh_

_La da da da, la da da da da_

_Don't, don't_

_Oh, oh_

_Hush, hush, darling, hush, hush, darling_

_Hush, hush don't tell me 'cause it hurts_

_Hush, hush, darling, hush, hush, darling_

_Hush, hush don't tell me 'cause it hurts"_

The gathered crowd clapped at the song, even Ayame could not help but to join in on the clapping. She knew exactly what person she spoke of, because Naruto was the kind of person to bring light to any life. However, she could just as well be singing about Iruka-the man had been sent on a mission out of the village to help a jōnin team out with tracking a fugitive from Iwa, forcing him to get a substitute teacher. That being said, she'd seen Miyuki blush when he wasn't looking; something that Iruka seemed to reciprocate. The situation of the two people she liked being shy to each other was such that Anko once came to her stand, and made a long-standing bet on free ramen with her...Ayame bet a year of free ramen that they were going to get together in three years; Anko said she'd pay double for her ramen for a year if they got together any later than that. Suffice to say the bet was going to either cost or make Ayame a lot of money.

"And that is another reason I come to this stand often," said Choji, "food for the stomach, and the ears."

"Forget my mom, this girl can scold _**me**_ all day long." Shikamaru said smiling and for once, not thinking this was troublesome.

"So, what were you saying about Ino?" asked Choji, picking his bowl back up.

And it was there that the conversation continued from where they left off...and Ayame listening carefully as she continued to work. She could only agree with what Miyuki had said a little earlier, even if she wasn't talking about Naruto directly...she hoped that he would bring light to someone else's life.

…

[Baihe Huayin's mansion-that night...]

The walk back had a lot of words said between Meilan and her aunt Xianglin, while they went through the marketplace in the daytime, and it continued through to the halls of the mansion while Naruto carried his guitar-he was unable to let out a word of his opinion, but he listened in on the tales that Xianglin told of her travels. Apparently, one of the things the latter did as a priestess while she was out of the village was to perform improvised funerary services on the road (like burying dead bodies and making sure she said some holy words to them), in addition to mini-, minist-, damn it! He couldn't say the word, but she was walking around, talking about someone named Buddha to people on the road. "So, what brings you back here?" asked Meilan, finally getting to the issue.

"Your mother wanted to see me," began Xianglin, escorting her niece and her friend back to the mansion, "she said she had a student…"

Xianglin was cut off from her response when she bumped into someone. "Ah! Sorry 'bout that I...neechan?"

Upon seeing the person that bumped into her, Xianglin let a light smile cross her face. "Mulan."

At first glance, the woman that bumped into Xianglin looked almost nothing like her...she had obviously-dyed blazing orange hair, and a dark tan on skin that was pulled taut over a muscular and feline body type. She was also a bit shorter than Xianglin, her breasts were a bit smaller, and had a slimmer frame meant for quick and decisive movements. She also had a very confident smirk on her just-as-pretty face that seemed to promise a lot of mischief. "Well, tarnation, if it ain't my prude big sis," she said with a strange lilt to her words, "didn't think I'd see your do-gooder ass here today." She then turned her attention down to Meilan. "An' how're you doin' squirt?"

"I'm fine," said Meilan, happy to see her other aunt all the same.

"Hmph! And I didn't think I'd get to see the black sheep of the family either," Xianglin jabbed back, "tell me, how goes life in the big city? You still living a life of sin?"

Taking the question lightly, Mulan let out a chuckle. "Well, if I didn't live the life I did, the family wouldn't be as safe as it is today now would it?"

"So, what's the latest news from the underworld?"

"Nothin' much, just some greasy lil' pig in sunglasses thought he could muscle in on my territory in Tanzaku City. Said he wanted to buy my casino, and that he'd owned some kinda shippin' company...was it Kayo Shipping or somethin'? Well anyway, you know what I did? I _**muscled**_ _**him**_ outta town when I beat the shit out of the lunkheads he came to my casino with. The fucking prick ran off to who knows where with his tail between his legs; guy thinks he can seal a deal by feelin' me up and get away with it, he's got another thing comin'."

Whether she was sighing in exasperation, or in relief, Naruto was pretty sure Xianglin didn't know. "I'm glad you refused his offer. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry about you getting disowned."

"Don't be, neechan," said the fire-haired woman, "You didn't have anything to do with it. In fact, I _**wanted**_ it to be this way."

Upon hearing that, Naruto could not help but be confused. "What do you mean you _**wanted**_ it to be this way?"

After finally regarding Naruto, Mulan let out a chuckle. "Well for your information, I thought that the clan was too slow for me. So I decided I was gonna strike it out on my own...let's just say, it ain't exactly pleasant what I did to get myself disowned. And I may not make an honest livin', but at least I got to work towards protecting the family in my own way. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Cousin Huayin is waitn' to speak with y'all. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some work to do."

Mulan walked away with a sway in her step. Naruto turned to Xianglin. "Xianglin who was that?"

Xianglin sighed. "Mulan...is a bit of a wild card in the family. She was kicked out of the family for several things. She's a rebel, but she's still a good person; but the rest of the family thinks she brings dishonor, so we cannot officially have any contact with her. But unofficially, she protects the family by giving us news from the underworld; ties to the black market, having contact with information brokers, a lot of illegal activities are attributed to her, all so that she can help protect the family in the darkness. And in all honesty, she's not the first...our mother loved the family so much that she did the exact same thing."

"Then why was she allowed to lead the family if she was connected in such a way?" Naruto asked.

"I believe mother allowed her to keep her position as heiress due to politics in the clan." Meilan said. "With a clan as large as ours, when the head family has multiple children, some family clan members would want to throw their support behind a certain heir or heiress."

His mind fried by what he was hearing Naruto chose not to press on with the questioning. However, the second he opened the door, he noted that Huayin-sama was not alone. Sitting down next to her was her younger brother Shizi, but behind him stood someone he didn't recognize; the man looked to be just a little younger than GSD-sensei, with a long, stroking the flowing black beard going down from his chin. His clothes told a story of a lonely life from all the tears and rips. As per his body type, he was made up of lean muscle unlike Shizi's chunkier form. "Naruto-kun, Meilan, I'd like for you to meet Fei-ying, the eldest cousin in my generation," introduced Huayin, "he is also by far one of the best fighters in the Baihe clan."

"So it's true," remarked the elderly man, scrutinizing both Meilan and Naruto very carefully, "My niece has gotten herself a training partner."

"What's going on, Huayin-sama?" asked Naruto, curious as to why a lot of the family was gathered today.

"You've both been doing so well the past month, that I decided you are both ready for more advanced training, which is why I called in your uncles and aunts, Meilan," answered Huayin, "but make no mistake, you're still going to be going through the routine every day; it's just that you're going to be worked even harder by each of your new teachers. Each of them is a master of unparalleled skill in their fields. Shizi will expand upon the brute-strength regimen befitting a master of Grapplers; Fei-ying will teach the speed and power of the Strikers; and Xianglin will teach you both the art of using your inner-energy to add more force to your blows the way Nen Masters would."

"Auntie Mulan isn't going to teach us?" asked Meilan with a dejected look on her face.

With a sad look on her face, Huayin let out a sigh. "Sadly, no. As much as Mulan would like to teach the art of the Brawler, she has more important matters to attend to." At this moment, the smile on her face had returned. "However, we may as well make do with what we can get. I expect the both of you to be ready as of tomorrow...your training just got even harder. I just hope you're both up to the challenge."

For a moment, Naruto seemed to hesitate, but that was quickly replaced with determination. "You're right we're ready, and I promise that you won't be disappointed!"

"If Naruto-kun is taking that challenge, then so am I!"

Huayin let out a light giggle. "I expected nothing less. Now go on, wash up and relax for a bit."

Watching as the two children ran off to shower and continue to rest up for the rest of the day, Huayin could not help but to feel warm inside. "What do you think, Fei-ying; do you think they're up to your standards?"

"If you want my honest opinion, they probably should not have to go through this training," answered the older man, eliciting a look of surprise on Shizi's face; this was because Fei-ying had never taken students before, due to his exacting standards. "but yes, I see a lot of potential in them for the future; and it would be an honor to teach such promising students. I just wonder as to what fate has in store for them."

"I wouldn't worry about them," said Shizi, "I'm pretty sure they'll do well. Besides, you just got me a foundation to work from, neechan."

"I am not certain I'll be able to teach the boy much though," added Xianglin, knowing her own experience with Naruto, "he doesn't seem to be the type to sit still and meditate."

"You'll find a way, I'm sure of it," reassured Huayin, "after all, you did teach my husband the art of meditation, and I'm pretty sure Naruto-kun will be no different."

"True, I am surprised your husband could sit still at meetings in the first place. The man behaved like he was on an eternal sugar rush."

The more she thought about it, the more Huayin thought that she was looking in the past; her long-dead husband was nothing like Naruto in appearance, but his spirit seemed to have reincarnated into him all the same. Buddha's will worked in mysterious ways, and she could only hope that they would have as good a fortune as she did with her husband; as relatively brief a time it was for her...

…

_**A/N: **_

_**Kurogane7: And here we go ladies and gentlemen. Give a warm round of applause to UnitedOsprey1991 for co-writing this story with me. Were it not for him, this story could've gone slower.**_

_**UnitedOsprey1991: Hello readers. Mr. Kurogane allowed me to help out. Please be kind in your reviews and rest assured we have more on tap.**_

_**As promised, here are the links to each of the Slayer Classes Naruto could possibly become. The poll is on my main account, so please do click on which you want. You have until the end of the Baihe Village arc to decide, so choose quickly, as I plan to end it fairly soon. And without further ado, here are the classes (remove the spaces):**_

_**(Asura) dnf. auxgaming index. php?title = Asura**_

_**(Berserker) dnf. auxgaming index. php?title = Berserker**_

_**(Soul Bender) dnf. auxgaming index. php?title = Soul_Bender**_

_**(Weapon Master/Blademaster) dnf. auxgaming index. php?title = Weapon_Master**_

…

_**Vocabulary**_

_**Xianglin-in Mandarin, this would be written as 'fragrant forest' (**__**香林**__**), she is the Nen Master teacher**_

_**Fei-ying-this would be 'flying shadow' (**__**飛影**__**) or 'eagle' (**__**飛鷹**__**) in Mandarin, whichever you prefer; he is the Striker teacher**_

_**Mulan-written the same way as the woman warrior of the same poem (**__**木蘭**__**), but a completely different character, I assure you. She's the Brawler.**_


	4. Rise Above

_**A/N: Hey there ladies and gentlemen, this is Kurogane speaking again. We're going to focus on another character, but we are still going to have a bit of training for Naruto. Plus, there will be more cameos here. All in all, do read and review would you kindly?**_

...

{Play: "Maestro" by Kawai Kenji from "Ip Man"}

[Foshan, Baihe Village-a six nights later...]

Naruto stood in the shower, allowing the warm water to wash over him as he felt his aching muscles sting briefly before they started to relax a bit. He then moved his hand towards the shackle on his wrist, placing his fingers over the two raised buttons on the rim, and giving them a press. There was a snap-hiss of a pressurized lock being released as he removed the shackle on his wrist and soaped the area underneath before rinsing it and quickly putting it back on, allowing for the intake of air to sound off before doing the same for the shackle over his bicep. This was the daily ritual whenever he really bathed with soap; according to GSD, as long as he had at least one limiter on, and he was quick, he could clean the areas under the chains. Once he was done with the most important bit first, he began to take his time with the showering, but also reminded himself that Meilan was right outside, waiting for her turn to shower; even though he'd been doing it for the last month, it was still awkward that the two of them massaged each other as per training, he didn't want it to get any worse by bathing with her too. '_Not that there's anything wrong with her body or anything; it's just that I don't think it's come to that point yet.'_

Foshan was a location in the outskirts of the Baihe Village that was very hard to miss; it was pretty much the giant buddha statue carved into the cliff face right next to the waterfall that added more water to the hotsprings. However, atop that buddha statue was a temple where people tended to congregate...some were the monks and nuns who lived there, others were regular people who came to pray or pay respects the dead, but all came here to venerate Buddha and his teachings or to get an education at all. There was also another complex nearby the temple where advanced students of the Baihe way were housed and taught with their partners. It was essentially a large motel where everyone was given two-person rooms, one for every pair. But for Naruto and Meilan, they took some essentials such as clothes and toothbrushes, and moved on over to a cottage not too far from the large motel where they were accompanied by Shizi, Fei-Ying, and Xianglin, up the steps.

The last month had nothing on the advanced training he and Meilan had to go through...that's because all the daily chores and stretchings he had to do with her down in the village were still done, only this time, the two of them were to make a jog down the many steps to the soap-makers at the bottom of the cliff. Once they were done, they had to run back up the steps to get in their daily stretch and spar...this time, with Shizi, Fei-ying, and Xianglin jumping in to help with the exercises while Yamato pulled Naruto away from time to time to get specialized training as a shinobi. Simply remembering that Yamato was in the group as well, he could only groan. '_Somebody please kill me now...I can't take any academic work the guy sends me!'_

As he was the master Grappler, Shizi taught that one of the most important parts that a grappler had to strengthen was his back; and to demonstrate what happened when someone's back was weak, he got a straw dummy out, hoisted it above his head, and broke its torso in half across his knee. Naruto and Meilan shivered at the thought of that happening, and so they made it a point to emphasize a bit more on training and stretching their backs more heavily. Once that was done, he then taught them basic grappling skills, throws being among them, as well as how to get out of them. Meilan, being more gifted in hand-to-hand combat, wound up throwing Naruto in the air very often. '_I'm pretty sure she was waiting for an excuse to catch me in a bridal carry...'_

Fei-ying's training was a little simpler...and yet, just as difficult at the same time; his emphasis was that your hands and feet should not be doing all the work when you're fighting, and that you should also be using your elbows, knees, and shins to add to that. He mostly had the two of them practicing katas to get the form right before sending them off to their sparring practice, but he also made them both dance. It was embarrassing every time Naruto had stumbled, as Meilan was usually the one that picked him back up; and it didn't help that Fei-ying usually moved in to try and trip them up to test how well they kept their line of center. Once, he fell in such a manner that it looked like he was pinning Meilan down by her shoulders; and at another time, he pinned Meilan down, not by her shoulders, but by something...softer. He gently probed at the dark-red handprint on his cheek, imprinted there for touching her chest, even if it was on accident...that would be there for quite a while. It was also another reason that showering together would be a bad idea. '_I keep telling her it was an accident, so how long is she going to be mad at me for?!'_

The only part of the training that seemed to be the hardest for Naruto was the fact that Xianglin made the two of them sit down to meditate. Now, what was it about martial arts that made meditation so important? Just the thought of sitting still for a few hours bored him to no end; after a bit of an argument with her, Xianglin called him a coward, a liar, and a hipa-...hippo-...gah! These grownups, they use such fancy words to call kids bad names! They had to know that kids wouldn't understand them! But he supposed what she meant when she called him a hippo-whatchamacallit (_critical hippo?)_ was along the lines of 'promise-breaker', if her earlier accusation of him being a coward and a liar were any indication.

Needless to say, it got him to sit his ass down, and meditate...and she had to add to the challenge that the one who stayed in meditation the longest by the end of the session would get to choose dinner for the night. As usual, Meilan won the challenge and got to pick out something vegetarian, as Xianglin had sworn off meat after being a priestess. '_Damn that Meilan! She's always beating me at everything! Well you know what? I'm going to win that right to choose dinner next time!'_

Before long, Naruto heard the sound of someone knocking on the door, startling him out of his thoughts. "Naruto, are you done yet? I really need to wash up!"

"I'll be done in a minute Meilan!" Naruto called out as he finished cleaning up. He towelled off and put on his night clothes before walking out of the bathroom to see Meilan in a bathrobe.

"Sorry about that. It's all yours."

Meilan nodded and entered the bathroom. Naruto then walked to the bed and fell down upon it...Meilan would be slipping into it soon enough, and they would both need their rest for tomorrow.

…

[Somewhere near the shores of Mizu no Kuni...]

The sound of waves crashing on the cliffs, and sea water being sucked into the sands added to the tranquil atmosphere that GSD was waiting in. He'd just arrived yesterday to meet someone at this very spot, and he'd hoped that this person would still be here...hopefully with a drink from her home country to lift his spirits and warm his heart. It was still cold, after all. "I don't think that campfire's going to cut it," he said to himself, as a wild chicken roasted on a spit over the orange flames. Thankfully, there were herbs and spices he knew of that were nearby to make this dinner even more bearable. If not, then he'd hoped that the civil war he'd heard about hadn't swallowed up his…

His thoughts were interrupted the second he heard the rustle of a branch above him. "Now that smells good," said a lazy voice above him. If he still had the ability to use his eyes, he would've known that the woman crouching on the branch above him had reddish-bronze skin and cream-colored hair...but what he did know from his ability to 'see' through the ground was that she had an inhumanly lithe body frame with a generous bust, and she was looking down on him with what he knew were sleepy, electric blue eyes. What gave her away were the two pointy ears on her head, telling of her elven heritage. "I do hope that I can have some of that."

"It depends, Minet," he said, smirking to himself, "what did you bring for me tonight?"

The elven woman named Minet leaped from her perch, flipped around in midair, and landed silently across from GSD. She then reached into the rucksack at the small of her back, and produced a pair of shot glasses, and a square bottle of a dark golden-brown liquid. "Siusha's signature whiskey," she finally said, "I'm sorry it won't be on the rocks."

"That's fine," he said, "I always did like a challenge."

"So how goes it with the new protégé?" asked Minet as she poured out a finger's whiskey into a glass and handed it to GSD.

"I see your spy network is still operational, even after your country's been caught up in that Civil War in Kirigakure," answered GSD, taking the glass.

Minet waved her hand in a noncommittal gesture. "It's true the Civil War has caused a communications crackdown, but it doesn't stop my nation's spies. Anyway, you didn't answer my question, mon frère."

GSD took a long sip and sighed, allowing the smooth texture and bitter flavor of the whiskey to work its magic. "It is a long process, but I believe that Naruto's full potential is being attained now that he is away from a village that would hold him back from true power."

Minet nodded. "So...what has the curse brought him? Is he the one?"

GSD raised his glass, silently asking for more whiskey. "I have no doubts that he's the one to finally do it," he said as Minet filled his glass, before pulling some of the chicken out for herself, "it won't be soon, and he's likely to go through a very tough road, but once he fulfills the prophecy, nobody will fear the Curse anymore...because once he does, he can teach future generations how to master it. In the meantime, he must master the basics before I can teach him anything."

"Here, here," said Minet, raising her shot to toast with GSD before taking a bite out of her drumstick.

"So, how goes the situation with your country? Are you still neutral in the Civil War?"

Minet grimaced in distaste. "Well, we still would be if that thick-headed idiot Yagura didn't send his shinobi out on to our shores, trying to kill off our people. 'Demons' he called us, 'bloodline-wielding scum', and my _**favorite**_, 'seductive harlots'! What's that racist son of a bitch trying to prove?"

"Irony at its finest." The blind swordsman muttered, tearing into his own haunch of meat while taking a slower sip of his whiskey.

"Anyway, in response, her majesty the Queen has openly declared that, until the civil war is over, any and all ships flying the Kirigakure colors would be sunk on sight...and that we would be siding with the rebels. We're doing pretty well too...okay, we're doing _**really**_ well. We managed to get the bastards in a blockade, but they're still fighting tooth-and-nail." Minet reported rather smugly, "Still, it's only a matter of time."

GSD faced Minet. "If you need a finishing blow, perhaps you can lure them out into the open sea and sink their main fighting ships. I mean, they are needed to bring in reinforcements, and are capable of dishing out heavier damage than their shinobi are capable of alone. They are the main threat."

Minet tapped a finger on her glass. "So, what you're saying is, we should gamble some of our ships to lure the main fleet out to sea and deal a devastating blow that can end the Civil War sooner?" she asked, considering her options, shortly before she grinned. "I like that plan. But I will have to bring this to the Queen herself...whether she approves of it or not, that is out of my hands...but for what it's worth, I think it's a real good idea."

GSD raised his glass in a toast, speaking in the Dark Elven tongue. "Vive le résistance."

Their glasses met with a light 'clink', "Long live the resistance indeed."

…

[Foshan, Baihe Village-the next day...]

Today was the day. Naruto and Meilan had been told by Shizi that they'd learn something new, and they'd been following him through the forest for the past few hours, haggling him for a clue. "You'll see when we get there." He'd reply patiently, brushing their questions aside with ease.

"We're here," he said, finally stopping before what appeared to be a large outcrop of stone against another cliff. This was very rocky terrain they were in, with large boulders everywhere, and pebbles covering the ground in place of sand.

"Welcome to the Grappler training grounds," he began, "we normally use this place as a quarry to carve statues and the like, as well as to make stone for our buildings, but there are plenty of rocks and boulders around that will serve our purposes well. Now, I'm sure you're wondering what today's lesson is."

"You've been telling us that you're going to teach us something new," Naruto pointed out, "so, what are you going to teach us?"

"Oh nothing, we're just going to destroy some rocks," Shizi said easily as he walked towards a boulder, "but you're not going to turn these rocks into pebbles…" he then took a stance, and landed a very heavy right straight into the boulder. What happened immediately after was burned into Naruto and Meilan's memory; as they watched him punch a hole in the boulder, no pebbles were formed from the impact zone-all that remained was dust. "...you're going to turn them into dust."

Still speechless from what he'd seen, Naruto could only croak. "Uhh...how did…"

"All it takes is pin-point control, a good amount of strength, and lightning-fast reflexes," began Shizi, "normally, when you punch with your entire fist, some of that force does not go into the target and is wasted...which is why when you punch a rock, the rock punches back. But with this training method, not a single ounce of force will be wasted; because when you strike in this manner, you must first strike with the minimal amount of force to break the target's resistance, and then follow through at the exact same moment with the other half of your strength to obliterate the target."

"So what do you want us to do, Uncle?" asked Meilan, finally finding the will to speak after the demonstration of strength and skill.

Shizi had a predatory smile stretching his lips. "I've got the perfect teacher for you. Toph, you can come out now."

The two young kids turned to see a small black haired girl. She was wearing a dark green suit with a cream colored top and had a green and yellow head band. "This is Beifong Toph. One of the premier grapplers in the Baihe village, and my personal student."

Naruto took a good look at her with her face even though it was to the side. "Uh, not to be rude Ms. Beifong...but we are over here."

Toph smiled. "I know. I can hear your voice way over there." She said without looking and pointed at Naruto.

Shizi explained. "You see Naruto, Toph was born blind; but this enhanced her other senses. Her blindness has given her a sort of...sixth sense you could say. But rest assured, she is quite a capable fighter."

After a moment of silence, Shizi turned to Toph. "Do a good job...and please don't kill this pair."

Once he'd said his piece, Shizi got up and left, leaving Naruto and Meilan with the girl before them. "All right then, let's get this started," began Toph with a sigh, feeling around a bit before picking up a fist-sized rock. "Our part of the training starts small. You each have a week to reduce a fist-sized hunk of rock into dust with your writing hand." she did exactly what Shizi did, only she reduced the entire rock to dust. "Every week you fail to do that, I'm going to bury you up to your neck without any food for the rest of the day. So let's get cracking."

Naruto and Meilan turned to face each other with a confounded look on their faces, silently asking a question to each other. A simple little shrug of their shoulders and a weary sigh was enough to show that they knew there was no other way out of their task. They each picked up a fist-sized rock and started punching...they had a week to do this in, and neither of them had any intention of getting hungry for a day.

Grunts of effort resounded through the quarry. Toph hopped on top of nearby boulder and folded her legs, leaning back into a comfortable position with a smirk. She knew that success would be unlikely for a good few hours.

As she relaxed, Naruto and Meilan pounded away at their rocks, knuckles already bleeding.

It was going to be a long day.

…

[Meanwhile...Hokage Tower, Konohagakure no Sato...]

The day was pretty average for Sarutobi Hiruzen as he looked through the paperwork, smoking his pipe. Some were mission reports; others, contracts that needed to be renewed with certain store owners. Oh, how he wished he could burn it all and be done with it so that he could smoke in peace...but alas, he couldn't get rid of all of them.

After signing off on another mission report, Hiruzen took a break and looked outside the window at the village he loved and continued to protect, even in his advanced age. He began to think back on the day that he confronted Hiashi, Tsunade, and Fugaku one at a time about the Curse of Kazan. Apparently, that man GSD was telling the truth after all; and for all his distrust of the man that day, he was immensely thankful that the blind man took Naruto out of the village...the boy needed to learn how to control the demon within; and if he stayed, there was the chilling possibility that what happened on that dreaded day the Kyūbi got loose would be _**nothing**_ compared to the horrifying amount of collateral damage and deaths caused by Naruto accidentally going berserk within the village walls. And the tales he'd heard from all three clans were enough to give him nightmares of roaring, red-skinned people with razor-sharp fangs and bloody claws running about with swords, and all kinds of bludgeoning implements in hand, slaughtering indiscriminately.

And the worst part was, throughout the whole ordeal, he noted the desperation in their swings cleaving into flesh, smashing through bone, and spilling copious amounts of blood. He could also see the suffering in their vacant, bloodlusted eyes as they murdered left, right, and center in an apparent attempt to stem the debilitating pain brought on by their affliction, both physical and mental.

According to all three accounts about the Curse of Kazan, everyone related to the Rikudō Sennin carried the Curse in their blood from birth, and it would remain dormant until something triggered the bloodlust. This would mean that his student Tsunade, her grandfather, and her uncle would have had this curse dormant within their bodies, and they have always been in danger of turning into one of those red-skinned monsters he'd heard nothing but horror stories about.

This may also be an explanation for why Itachi snapped the way he did; he could have awakened this 'curse' and in the ensuing moments of bloodlust, went mad and murdered most of his family. But this did not add up; the amount of people killed that day did not match up with the timing. There had to be something missing in the equation, something he was overlooking. That, and Itachi certain both from Shisui's intelligence and his own observations, that there were Uchiha members worth sparing.

His thoughts on the curse soon turned towards his surrogate Grandson, and the fact that he awakened the curse, as well as the fact that he was going on a trip that would hopefully result in the boy gaining control of the demon within. Apparently, according to the tales he'd heard, anyone who awakened the Curse of Kazan and sought to master the power it granted always had to stop at a crossroads as to how to control the demon in their arms; from striking a deal with the damnable thing, to installing a certain addition into their limiters to silence its voice, all the way down to letting go of all inhibition and simply giving in to the 'blood-rage' as they had put it.

And as he thought of the ways in which someone could gain power and wisdom as a so-called 'Slayer', Hiruzen was worried. What path would Naruto choose? Would he take control of the demon, or would he let the demon take control of him? Would he master the dark power, or be consumed by it?

Whatever the result, Hiruzen knew that he needed to have faith in Naruto; to believe that when the time came for his surrogate grandson to choose a path, he would be strong enough, if not wise enough, to do the right thing.

All thoughts cast aside, he took a long drag from his pipe, and went back to work. It's a good thing that the pile was almost done for today.

…

[Konoha General Hospital...]

With the hustle and bustle of nurses and doctors running about, doing their daily rounds, it was business as usual at Konoha General Hospital. Dr. Kurō Hazama was walking through the halls with an easy stride, a clipboard in his hands. Some of his patients were doing well. Others, not so much...and then there was the patient he was going to see now. Now, he was not a shinobi by any definition of the term, especially since he can't use chakra at all, but he'd participated in the last Shinobi World War as a medic, and successfully saved a lot of patients from varying causes of death; broken ribs from taijutsu techniques threatening to puncture lungs, chakra-laced burns from katon jutsu, fried organs from raiton jutsu, and even a case of self-inflicted blindness caused by a genjutsu misfire.

The patient he was going to see had been hit by a particularly powerful genjutsu, one that had been extremely troubling to to treat, with little success. Yes, he'd been able to stabilize her, and he'd put her on an IV drip for nutrients, antibiotics, as well as a low-powered stimulant that was designed to resuscitate her slowly at one point (given how incompetent many of the herbalists the director had, it was no surprise and so she was taken off of it), and giving her a mask leading to a heart-lung machine designed to keep her heart pumping, even bereft of her natural pulse. He had high hopes that she would be awakening today; if not, then he was afraid that Dr. Kiriko would be coming around to euthanize her...something that he really didn't want to happen; but unfortunately, being that he was living in a shinobi village, euthanasia was actually legal here, not to mention a rather common occurrence, given how many shinobi died a day if the doctor failed to save them.

The adage, 'You can't save everyone' was the first thing any doctor learned in the Shinobi World, besides how to treat poisonings, accidental and otherwise…Hazama knew it was true, but he still wasn't used to having patients die on him-as a matter of fact, it was a blow, to both to his pride and his soul whenever they expired on his operating table. This one however, he had resolved to save her life.

The second he opened the door, Kurō saw that there were people in the room already, surrounding his patient. Uchiha Mikoto was strapped down and handcuffed to the bed on the Hokage's orders...it looked cruel and excessive, but after the stories he'd heard in secret from the old man about the Curse of Kazan, it was safer this way in case she ever awakened it. "You've been here quite often Hiten," he said, "hoping to be the first thing she sees?"

"I don't mind if I'm the second thing she sees, I just want to see her come back to life."

Hazama could only smile to himself. Although he would never admit it, it always warmed his heart and lifted his spirits whenever he saw true love before him...which was another reason why he wanted to help resuscitate Uchiha Mikoto so badly. He also liked it when the person's loved ones are standing by, willing for the patient to wake up...which was the case of Uchiha Setsuka and Uchiha Setsuna. "And I may have the treatment for that," he said with a kind smile, pulling out a syringe, "the cocktail in this syringe is an experimental hallucinogen supposedly able to wake people in a coma." At this point, he frowned. "However, this would mean giving her an extremely bad nightmare. If I'm right, then the fear induced by this drug should be able to stimulate her adrenal glands and jolt her awake."

Upon hearing that, Hiten turned to Hazama with a desperate look on his face. "And what if you're wrong?"

"This is our only shot...if this fails, Kiriko will have to come in and…You understand."

"Speak of the devil, and he shall appear." Oh, this was not good! Hazama turned around, and had a look at the man in the doorway. He had stark-white hair, and his left eye was covered by an eyepatch. He also had a slightly gaunt appearance to him, with hollowed cheeks and sunken eyes that made him look a little more like a hitman than a doctor...or a freshly-deceased corpse. This was Dr. Kiriko, a fellow veteran of the last Shinobi World War, a euthanist, certified surgeon, and forensic anthropologist.

He looked like a corpse, he studied corpses, and he sometimes caused the creation of corpses; people wondered why such a man that was so tied to death was allowed in a hospital in the first place. It was a fortunate thing then, that he was a doctor first. "Isn't it a little soon for you to be here?" asked Kurō, still irritated that his rival was here.

"Maa, maa, no need to get hostile on me," said Kiriko, raising his hands in the air at the aggression being directed at him, "besides, the director wanted me to come here. Apparently he'd heard of the fear drug you are about to administer to this patient, and wants me on standby to put her out of her misery should you fail." Kiriko then pulled out a second syringe from his inner pocket, containing a vile-looking translucent green substance. "The toxins in this syringe will kill the patient quickly...she won't feel any pain, but she will slip into an endless dream as she dies."

It was at that moment, that Kiriko turned his attention specifically towards Hazama. "Just so you know, you have a lot at stake Kurō," he said, "if this fails, then the director will destroy your career, and make it so that you can never practice medicine again."

There was a reason for that; the director of the hospital outright hated Naruto. He would give orders that stopped doctors and nurses from ever treating the boy (some of whom gladly obeyed that order, despite the Hippocratic Oath forbidding such a thing). Hazama Kurō was not one of them, and because of that, he'd been given the stink-eye by a lot of doctors who wanted to kiss the director's ass for a promotion. But because he was quite possibly the best doctor in the village, save his teacher Tsunade, the good doctor was saved from ever being fired. "As if I will let that happen!"

Kurō walked towards the patient's bed, and found a free IV entry point. The needle punctured the rubberized barrier, and the plunger was pushed. He then turned to see Dr. Kiriko taking a seat and crossing his legs. All that they needed to do now, was wait…

…

{Play: "Faith of Jevel" by Darren Korb from "Bastion"}

[Unknown location...]

The whole world was twisted, and Mikoto knew it. It didn't help matters that she already knew she was in a genjutsu...far from it, it was almost feckless that she knew that very fact. Everywhere she went, she saw a reminder of her marriage to Fugaku...probably the only thing that he did right was to give her children that didn't turn out like him. She supposed it was also her revenge in a way for what his parents did.

Still, she was happy with her own children...and when Itachi had come to kill her...no, that wasn't Itachi; the Itachi she knew and watched grow up did not have hate in his dead eyes. But everywhere she went, she saw every member of the Uchiha, walking around infected with the curse and fanged, sadistic smiles on their faces. She'd heard them chanting 'join us', and 'give in to the rage' like a mantra trying to convince her to fall to the blood-rage as they have...and much to her horror, her own children had become infected too!

Mikoto knelt to the ground, grasping her head in pain...she didn't want to see any of this! She didn't want any of this to happen! It was then that she felt something odd in herself. '_Wait a minute,'_ she thought questioningly, '_how can my children have the curse active as well?'_

{Play: "Dots and Dashes" by Silversun Pickups}

It was then that she felt a surge of power overtaking her. Mikoto soon stood up, her strength seemingly renewed. This was not going to happen! Not to her daughters! Not if she had any say in it!

Almost as if in response to her increase in strength, Mikoto felt something materialize in her hands...as soon as she looked down, she saw that it was her 'sisters', Kurohime and Shirohime!

Seeing what was going on, the nightmare-Uchihas started charging at her...each of them creating weapons made of blood from self-inflicted wounds. They came like a stampede of wild bloody animals, ready to rend her into shreds, hack her into pieces, and even crush her to death. They knew if she escaped, they would be forced to go into hibernation once again, and the chance of corrupting her would be slimmer in the future!

However, Mikoto was having none of it! She took their shit in life, but not in death, not when she had people to live for! Calling upon memories of her fighting style, she started her counterattack by sliding a bit, to catch one Fallen Uchiha by the calf and swinging upwards, decapitating the demonic abomination and causing it to splash into a pool of blood.

After kicking another Fallen in the face and slicing both arms off, she took a moment to assess her situation...due to what her 'marriage' was like, Mikoto knew that she was going to be a lot slower than before, but that didn't stop her dance of death as she flipped over and stabbed another Fallen Uchiha between the shoulders where the subclavian arteries would be. She wasted no time and energy killing the small fry with the flourishes she remembered; just one cut, one kill per minor Uchiha. She was going to save her best for the toughest one of them all; and she knew he was somewhere in there, just waiting for her to tire out and become easy prey. A bastard in death just as much as he was in life. Like she should've expected any different.

As she continued dancing away with her blades, she found that only a few remained. It was then that she came across the first of her corrupted children; Itachi. He would not go down without a fight. He moved in, and slashed, parrying away her strikes, but she found an opening in his guard that only she knew of and stabbed him through the neck, shortly before she brought her blade back out and swiped the black sister across his throat. He collapsed into a pool of blood with the other Fallen Uchiha. She gave one last look at the pool of blood that her son had become. "I will always love you, my son."

"Still have a lot of fight in you? Now that's a surprise, I don't remember you having that kind of stamina," asked the growling, but familiar voice of her 'husband', with her daughters standing in front of him, their corrupted eyes looking scared of what she might do, their hands trembling. His face was glowing with those vile red eyes, and like most of the Fallen Uchiha she had put to rest, he was naked as the day he was born.

Fugaku then brought the girls closer to him, in a seemingly loving embrace. "Are you sure you're willing to do this?" he taunted, "Are you willing to kill your own daughters to get to me?"

Mikoto frowned at her 'husband'. Seeing him naked in life was bad enough, but now, with his hands on her daughters? She was going to kill him, painfully. "Corrupted or not, they are still my daughters, and I will not let them become you! You sank your claws into Itachi, but I won't let you do the same to them! Now face me! Or are you the same disgraceful little coward I still remember you as?"

Fugaku brushed aside her twins with a snarl twisting his visage. "I'll make you eat those words, you frigid bitch!"

It worked! She couldn't believe it! That bastard let her taunts get to him! And then she watched as he formed a two-handed sword from a nearby pool of blood. Mikoto had her twin katana at the ready in reverse grips...if what she remembered about Fugaku's swordplay still applied, he was a power-type swordsman that enjoyed dirty fighting, so a more defensive and agile stance would be needed.

The fight began as Fugaku let out a bestial roar, and began to charge with his sword at the ready. He brought the blade down, causing Mikoto to take a leap backwards before moving back in an attempt to cut at his arm, only to be hit by a backhand that sent her flying. Using the white 'sister' to stop her from skidding away from the fight, Miko then ran back, sliding between her the legs of her husband, and bounced back up to bring her the katana clutched in her fist down to open a long slash on his back.

Letting out a furious howl of pain, Fugaku swung his blade sideways in an attempt to bisect Mikoto in one pass. He recovered from the miss and reached into the dry ground, digging up what seemed to be blood-spattered sand. Seeing what he did, Mikoto knew she had to be more careful, unless she wanted to be blinded by a handful of earth. She moved back in, weaving through his missed thrusts, and rolling under wild horizontal slashes, trying her best to stay away from his closed fist, waiting for the perfect opportunity to…

There! She moved in close, and was about to slash at his abdomen, hoping to spill his guts to the floor when she felt the wind get knocked out of her, before getting shoved back as she took a knee to her stomach. Taking the time to taunt his opponent, Fugaku laughed cruelly. "Is that your best, wench? Would you like me to tie one of my arms behind my back and actually give you a chance?"

She was beyond angry now...there was no way out of this nightmare until she killed the likeness of the bastard she once called a husband.

Fugaku sneered at Mikoto. "I would've never married a woman like you if i knew you were this weak! I wouldn't have persuaded my parents to sign that marriage contract."

At that, Mikoto chuckled coldly. "And that is your problem. You never married me at all; you basically raped me, and _**that's**_ how Itachi and the twins were born. If I had my way, I would have married Higurashi Hiten. I knew he was with another woman, but both knew he still loved me. They should have been his kids, not yours, bastard!"

Fugaku cackled madly. "And _that_ is why I took him away! That muscle-bound fool would never _**truly **_understand your beauty. But now you are alone...your family is gone...and your love cannot help you now! What are you going to do, _**Miko-chan**_?"

Before she could come up with a response, Mikoto felt a strong burning in her eyes...it was like awakening her own Sharingan for the first time, only much worse. Could it be? Did she do it? She opened her eyes, and from then on, the world clarified, and she could see the look of utter horror on Fugaku's face. It's been so long since she had been so satisfied, but she knew that it wouldn't last long! She needed to move now!

Grabbing both of her katana, Mikoto moved in...it was too late for him, but Fugaku refused to allow it to end this way! The second she stopped right in front of him, it was over: with a single turn, she stabbed him in the crotch with Kurohime, then performed an upwards slice with Shirohime to completely emasculate him and slice off his face in one motion. Fugaku let out a death rattle as the front of his face slid to the ground with a wet smack, and collapsed to the ground; disintegrating into blood as he did so.

Mikoto dropped to her knees as the world around her broke down. She closed her eyes, content in the defeat of her nightmares. She'd won...for now.

Conscious World

Mikoto groaned as she regained consciousness. At first, everything seemed blurry...until it gradually began to clear up. The first thing she saw was her daughters, sleeping in the chairs next to her bed.

Her next view was of a very familiar, and welcome sight: Hiten was asleep in the chair at the foot of her cot, with his own daughter leaning against him.

Straining, she raised her hand to stroke Setsuna's hair, only to find that she'd been handcuffed to the bed...it was lucky her head was right next to her hand. Said girl felt soft fingers gently threading through her hair and opened her eyes. She looked to her right and saw her mother's smile and her warm charcoal eyes.

"K-k-kaa-san?" She said with a trembling voice.

"Good morning, my little raven." Mikoto said softly, stroking her daughter's cheek with the back of her hand.

"KAA-SAN!" Setsuna yelled and hugged Mikoto. The shout woke up the other occupants and Setsuka joined her sister in hugging her.

"Good to have you back, Miko-chan."

Mikoto smiled warmly as she turned to face Hiten. "It's good to _**be**_ back."

"Of that, I'm sure," said the voice of a man she knew very well. After all, this was the doctor who delivered her little ravens when everyone else was too busy. "How are you feeling now, Mikoto-sama?"

She let out a sigh as she turned to face Dr. Hazama. "I'm tired now, but at least I'm fine and awake. I'm pretty sure the Hokage must've told you about the Curse, otherwise there wouldn't be such heavy restraints put on me. Unfortunately, as I am now, I can't afford to get into another coma-if I'd been infected in the first place, it would've been over with once and for all; next time, it'll be way harder for me to come back."

"Either way, you're lucky you made it at all," said Dr. Hazama, still grinning happily, "I'll be back to check on you tomorrow; you won't be released immediately, but it doesn't hurt to check."

She didn't know what the future would bring, but one thing Mikoto knew, with her daughters at her side, and Hiten now back in her life, things would be different this time around. Better.

…

[Foshan, Baihe Village-five days later...]

It was fortunate that Xianglin's specialist training of Meilan included the art of healing, using the special energy that Naruto had heard being called 'Nen', which seemed to be exclusive only to the Baihe clan. She'd said that long ago, after meeting with priests from another Buddhist sect, the Baihe clan priests and doctors had learned to scale down a particular jutsu so that they don't have to spend a lot of energy to heal one patient with a technique meant to heal a group.

In any case, had Meilan not learned this art of healing, the training that Toph had given them almost five days prior would've left ragged scars on their knuckles. Despite the many failures thus far, both Naruto and Meilan had started getting the hang of the 'Futae no Kiwami' training as it was called, if only just two days ago. At first, they'd had no success whatsoever. Meilan, despite her strength, was more lithe than Naruto, while the blond had problems with his hands, as they were not as strong as they could be, due to the malnutrition that was only starting to get corrected. Naruto had asked himself...what were they doing wrong? Why was the rock not turning to dust?

"Ryo for your thoughts Naruto-kun?" asked Meilan, pausing in her bashing of the rock.

"I'm just wondering," he replied, staring at his rock with a furrowed brow, "we've been pounding at the rock for what, going on six days now? And so far, we've done nothing but smash our rocks into pebbles. What are we doing wrong?"

"I don't know, I've been punching my rock as long as you have. Maybe it's something we're missing here."

Naruto looked at the rock with a scrutinizing gaze. There had to be something to this trick that they weren't getting. It was then that he thought back to the way that Shizi-sensei was punching; it was just like he'd seen Toph punch the rock...with the fingers in their fists raised first, before bringing the other knuckles down on the rock very quickly. He also remembered exactly what else he'd heard Shizi say about the technique in the first place. And then, as soon as the thought hit him, Naruto used his free hand to slap himself on the forehead. "I am so stupid."

"No comment." Meilan giggled.

Naruto pouted at his partner. "I mean, it looks like we are missing something that Shizi-sensei said in the beginning! Do you remember how he and Toph were punching their rocks?"

"Yeah, with their fingers raised first, and then they followed through with their knuckles." Meilan replied, not understanding where the blond was taking his train of thought.

"It's more than that," he added, "the punches to the rock aren't supposed to be one at a time, they're supposed to two punches at the same time! The first punch with our knuckles raised breaking through the resistance first, and then the knuckles on our hand quickly following to smash the rock, which goes back to what he said we also needed for this: lightning-fast reflexes so that we can get the timing of the two punches right."

"Then if you're right, we need to work on both our speed and timing!" She exclaimed happily, glad to be making some progress in their task.

"You think you can do it faster than I can?" asked Naruto, challenging Meilan.

"Damn right! I most certainly won't go hungry for a day!" The Baihe girl shouted back, the glimmer of challenge in her eyes.

"And neither will I! I'll pulverize that rock first, or my name isn't Uzumaki Naruto!" replied a determined Naruto, hungry for victory. And dinner.

And the night went on, with both students continuing to punch their rocks at gradually increasing speeds, determined to get the timing down just right. Tomorrow was the day that Toph would be inspecting their progress; if neither of them could pulverize a rock with a single punch, then they'd be buried up to their necks!

...

[Foshan Quarry, the next morning...]

Toph eyed her two underlings with an almost sadistic glee in her smile. Both of them were tired, likely from staying up too late trying to master the "Futae no Kiwami", if the multitudes of rubble covering their sleep-deprived forms were any indication. "Well now, you two look like hell. You think you're ready to show me what you've learned?"

The groggy laugh that Naruto let out surprised the blind girl...especially since its tone had promised that there would be a surprise waiting for her. "Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure you'll be surprised."

"Are you ready to see what we've got?" yawned a sleepy Meilan, "I just want to go back and sleep!"

Upon hearing them speaking, Toph let out an evil cackle under her breath. "Okay then, show me what you've got."

Hearing this, both Naruto and Meilan had reached into the ground, fumbling around until each had found a fist-sized piece of rock. After standing back up, the two of them raised their knuckles and prepared for the attack; they each punched viciously into their rocks at lightning speed, pulverizing them with the exact technique they were shown.

Assessing their progress, her face betrayed none of the surprise she felt. "Very good," Toph said in approval, "you've both done something that took me three tries to learn. Unfortunately, given how you're both tired right now, you're still gonna get buried up to your necks."

Both Meilan and Naruto had an outraged look in their tired eyes. "WHAT?! WHAT THE HELL FOR?!"

"Oh relax! It's not like I'm going to bury you in sand for the rest of the day!" shot back Toph angrily, "There's a mud bath nearby where the two of you can take the rest of the day off. Besides, what you've just been through is only the first step."

The two children collapsed in exhaustion and then started laughing off the stress, until they realized the last part of what Toph had just said. They both looked up and saw her walking towards a boulder free of holes and craters, before driving her fist, elbow, and knee into the boulder, and stomping her foot into the ground. There was now a hole where she punched, a crater in front of her knee, a hole created by her elbow in the boulder, and a crater in the ground with her foot in it, with nothing but dust left behind.

"As you can see I expect to see similar results through your elbows, knees, and feet throughout the next few months. Since Shizi is a master, I expect he can also do it with his shoulders and his head too."

Both Meilan and Naruto finally collapsed from exhaustion and exasperation upon hearing that.

Toph was about to drag them away to the mud baths when she'd just remembered something else. "Oh yeah, and by the way, starting next week, you're going to have to do the same thing with your left hand now!"

The second they heard that final remark from Toph, that trip to the mud baths sounded a lot more welcoming…the next few months would be tougher with Toph as a teacher…

...

_**A/N:**_

_**Kurogane: And once again, ladies and gentlemen, we go through another chapter. As usual, do give a round of applause to Soleneus and UnitedOsprey1991. And remember, the polls for Naruto's starting class will end after the Baihe Village arc, so do make sure you vote before it's too late, would you kindly?**_

_**Soleneus: Hey people, it's Soleneus, one of the other guys that writes Naruto Fanfiction. Just want to say, it's a pleasure to beta this Kurogane7 story with UnitedOsprey. Read and review, and Stay Awesome!**_

_**UnitedOsprey1991: Hey Guys its UnitedOsprey1991. I may not write Naruto stuff yet but doesn't mean I'm not a fan. Anyway I'm the other beta along with Solenus so I hope you like this. Read and review kindly. ~SWOOSH!**_

_**...**_

_**Vocabulary**_

_**Foshan-written as "**__**佛山" **__**in traditional Chinese, the word literally means "Buddha Mountain", and the location shares its name with an actual place in Guangzhou, China renowned for being a center for kung-fu (particularly the Southern Styles)...legends such as Wong Fei Hong (Hung Gar master and doctor) and Ip Man (Wing Chun master, and Bruce Lee's teacher) are extremely well-known in this place.**_


	5. Improvement

_**A/N: Kishimoto putting Naruto's final issue off for 15 years? Now that is odd…anyway, welcome ladies and gentlemen to the fifth chapter of "Naruto: The Dark Knight REMIXED". As you can probably see, we are nearing the end of the Baihe Village arc, and I plan to end it in the next chapter. Hopefully you enjoyed the time in the resort town of the Baihe clan. Also, as a reminder, Naruto's starting Slayer class will be decided after this next chapter, so you don't have too much time to make a decision. All that in mind, do read and review, would you kindly?**_

…

[Unknown Location...]

The woman simply enjoyed the progress she was seeing. Especially since this was one of the pleasures she was allowed to enjoy, but even that was pretty much a punishment as the fact of the matter was, no matter what she saw through Naruto's eyes, it just wasn't the same as being there. Another part of her 'karma'.

But then again, she had a pretty good idea of how her 'stalking victim' felt through whatever he was going through at the moment. This was because of the high she got from his emotions at every time something happened to him: the soothing enjoyment and satisfaction of sneaking ramen under the teachers' noses; the fear of getting caught trying to sneak away from Yamato's lectures (the punishment for which was even worse than the act of sneaking off); the feeling of electricity running up the spine, as he felt awkward whenever that girl Meilan gave him a massage, and he gave her one in return; and even the rush he had whenever he sparred with her.

Unfortunately, it still tortured her to no end because it did not change the fact that everything she felt was in essence a phantom feeling: she could taste what he was eating and savor the flavor, but she could not feel the food nor feel the satisfaction of being full; she could feel someone massaging the stresses of the day away, but could not feel the hands on her back; she could even smell the herbal salts thrown into the baths, but could not feel the heat of the springs melting her troubles away.

The woman remembered exactly what her father told her; that one day his reincarnation would be born of the Curse, master all the Slayer paths, and then come before her and her brothers and sisters to speak with them as equals. As a matter of fact, her father seemed to believe that this 'Dark Knight' he kept going on about would change the world; that his teachings would save the world from the Curse of Kazan that every one of his descendants continued to suffer from to this day.

Pfft! Yeah, right! She and her siblings had been waiting for that day to no avail…and when disappointment has been in your life for years, it tends to replace belief with bitterness. Somehow, she had a sneaking suspicion that her father had not successfully reincarnated, and that he has gone off to his well-deserved eternal slumber.

But as she thought back on what her father had told her about his reincarnation that was due to succeed him one day, she'd silently made an angry bet with herself: if, and when that 'Dark Knight' were to appear, she would marry him on the spot.

As of late, she'd had a thought; escaping to the surface after many years buried alive under tons of bitterness and disappointment, she had a feeling that that day was coming soon for some reason…maybe not tomorrow, but the time was nigh. Ha! Perhaps she should be fitted for a bridal gown in the meantime.

However, as she continued to watch Naruto-kun's progress through his eyes, the woman could not help but feel that he could very well be the one.

...

[Foshan, Baihe Village-three months later...]

The birds were chirping, and bees were working overtime to prepare for the coming winter. Naruto and Meilan had worked so hard on their "Futae no Kiwami" training for quite some time now, learning to do the various things that Toph and Shizi had taught them to do...so far, they were able to finish training up using the technique with their hands and feet; what they were both having trouble with was their elbows and knees, as there was only one contact point in each of those areas for the technique to be applied; and apparently, the shoulders and head were only optional, but Naruto insisted on mastering the "Futae no Kiwami" with all possible contact points, so that he could have an extra tool in his arsenal. This prompted Shizi to come on over and personally train Naruto to learn to apply the "Futae no Kiwami" to his headbutts and shoulder-tackles, such as starting a fight with a tackle, or using a headbutt should he miss a sword-swing in the future.

Xianglin mainly taught Naruto to settle down and meditate, much to his irritation and impatience, especially since he was angry that there was no noticeable improvement whatsoever from the meditation. However, Xianglin had told Naruto to start making chakra like Yamato had taught him...he finally realized that his meditation practice had allowed him to make more chakra without getting tired. From then on, Naruto didn't say anything bad about meditation, and just used whatever time he had to relax between training sessions to meditate some more. Meilan on the other hand was given her specialist training from Xianglin, and her lessons would remind Naruto of a particular saying he'd heard in passing, but never understood until now: "whatever Mother Nature gives, she can take back". This was because she'd been taught more than just healing techniques by her aunt; she was also taught how to use her 'Nen' energy to empower her attacks, and electrocute her enemies. '_That is the most disturbing thing I've ever heard...'_

As per Fei-ying, Naruto and Meilan were currently standing around near the entrance to the cave where he technically lived. Apparently, Huayin had felt so bad about her elder cousin, living out in the wilderness, that she gave him his own real estate closer to home. Much to her annoyance, the eldest member of her generation rarely even used the cave she gave to him for its intended purpose; if anything, he rented it to a friend of the family who primarily used it as a workshop, as he seemed to have weapons that the police quartermaster personally came all the way up here from the village to pick up...namely the tonfas and fighting gloves the Baihe Village police officers kept on hand. There were also weapons that Naruto had never seen before; daggers and claws that were meant to be worn on the wrists and held perpendicularly to the fist reserved for the village's SWAT unit, boxing gloves for tournament battles, and even heavy metal gauntlets for the police to breach doors with.

The two young children approached the cave and a heavyset man walked out of the cave with a friendly smile on his face. The soot on his apron, the hammer in his hand, and the dark-lensed goggles made it clear this man was a smith. "Ah Naruto-san, Meilan-sama, are you taking a break from training?"

Meilan nodded. "Fei-ying sent us here to pick up some weapons for the next stage of training before we get back. You think you have anything for us, Huoshan?"

The man named Huoshan chuckled mirthfully, leading the two children into the cave. "Well you've come to the right place. I have hundreds of weapons for your use. Please find one that calls to you...and if you still haven't decided yet, then I've got training packages for students like you and Naruto-san. I'll cut the price in half for that favor you did for me yesterday."

"Thanks Huoshan, we'll take a look."

Walking through the aisles of the arsenal, Naruto and Meilan had split up to find their choices. There had to be something for the two of them to use, and they were not leaving the store until they found it!

However, as Meilan looked upon the racks, she found something that caught her fancy. They were blue and silver with short blades extended about 18 inches, and handles that were perpendicular to the blade. She gently took them off the shelves and tested the grips.

"Ah yes, the bladed tonfas," said Huoshan, appraising the objects from behind Meilan, "not many of these weapons are used by the police due to their lethality, but they are made specifically for quick slashes and spinning hence the handle, making them more than welcome in the hands of the SWAT officers."

"How much are they?"

"Hmmm...with my discount, I can part with them for 1500 ryo in total."

Meilan bit her lips in thought and then walked to an open area to perform a kata to test them out for herself-it wasn't that Huoshan was a cheat by any shape or form, it's just that he's the type that rarely ever budges on his prices. Naruto watched behind a shelf as she danced with the blades. In his mind, he saw a deadly lotus blossom in the body of a young girl...if the martial arts were truly poetry in motion, then she was saying much in a single motion.

However, he found his hands wandering the shelf until he touched something metallic, causing him to look down. Naruto saw that he was touching a set item in a box; a pair of heavy metal gauntlets, and a pair of matching greaves. Both were made of a bluish sort of metal that bordered on black, and in between the plates were glowing white lines. The toes on the greaves and the design of the gauntlets gave the impression of claws. "I really wouldn't touch those at your level," said Huoshan, surprising Naruto with the fact that he was standing right behind him, "besides, they're much too big for you. Why would you want to pick up the gauntlets and greaves?"

"Well, I'm not as strong as the average person in this town, so I need something to help protect me," said Naruto, remembering very painfully how hard Meilan punched, as well as how hard it was to block her attacks precisely because of how strong she was, "plus, they kinda looked cool."

Huoshan nodded in agreement. "True, but there's a reason why the police reserve them for breaking doors down. However, if you're still adamant on taking this set of weapons as your first, I do believe I have something that may get you ready for the day you can finally put them on…" The smith turned around for a moment, and found a wooden suitcase with a smaller set of gauntlets and greaves for someone of Naruto's age. Not as fancy as the ones he was looking at, but they did look very effective. "For now, these things suit you better; since they're heavier than the weights I saw you put on, they're mainly used for training, but they're still pretty good weapons all the same. Just make sure Fei-ying-dono teaches you the techniques to really take advantage of them."

"So, what's the damage?"

"Due to the quality of the steel that went into making them, and how much work it was to calibrate every piece of that set, normally I'd be charging you 2500 ryo in total...but you can have them for 1250 since you did do a lot of work for me."

Naruto's sigh told a lot about his thoughts on the matter, but on the other hand, he had to be appreciative...it wasn't often that Huoshan gave discounts, and so he had to take advantage of the deal.

As he walked towards the counter, Naruto soon found Meilan waiting for him.

Meilan huffed, sneering playfully. "Took you long enough! Did you get lost or something?"

"I was looking really carefully," he said, while noticing she had two boxes; one of them was large enough to support the pair of tonfa-blades he'd seen her wielding, but the other was smaller. "I see you were really busy."

"Yep. While I think the tonfa are really cool, I figured I might want something simpler that's also good for sparring." As she spoke, Meilan pulled out the smaller box, and revealed that its contents were a pair of fingerless leather gloves with metal studs over the knuckles, and were reinforced with strips of hardened leather stitched onto the back of the hand. "Stylish, aren't they?"

Huoshan walked up to the counter grinning happily as he took the orders in stock. "Let's see now; for Meilan-sama, the total comes down to 1800 ryo, and Naruto pays 1250. Altogether, that's 3050 ryo."

Meilan looked at Naruto with a challenging expression on her face. "Obviously your weapons aren't that impressive if they are that cheap."

Naruto smirked as he pulled out his wallet and forked over his share of the money. "Care to wager on that?"

"Of course! We'll see who has the cooler weapons!"

"What's at stake Meilan?" Naruto grinned.

Meilan tapped her chin in faux thought. "If I win, you have to be my servant for entire month."

"And if I win?"

Meilan stuck out her tongue in thought. Because she'd grown up on a rather high part of the food chain in these parts, she knew Naruto would not know what to do with servants, so she would have to put up something else. She had an idea on mind, but she knew she probably wasn't going to like it. "I-if-if you win," she began stuttering nervously, before finding the nerve to say it quickly, "then I will go on a date with you."

Naruto gulped very nervously upon hearing that. Now he had girls that were friends Setsuna and Setsuka being an example, and maybe Tenten in particular; but a girl actually wanting to date him, now that was something he never thought would ever happen. He couldn't even begin to think on what he would actually _**do**_ on a date…movies? Fancy dinner? All the thoughts he had could not compare to the amount of stress he had on the subject itself. "What's the matter? Afraid I'm going to beat you?"

Shaking the nervousness he had on the subject of dating Meilan, Naruto had a determined look on his face as he faced her. "You're on! But under one condition! Fei-ying sensei gets to have the final word on whose weapon choice is more awesome."

"Deal!"

…

[Meanwhile, Huayin's mansion...]

The contract she'd just signed was with the Hokage, renewing a trade agreement her people had with the merchants residing in Konohagakure no Sato for wine in exchange for safe passage for all traveling Baihe clan members and various other materials needed for survival. It was tedious, but Huayin knew it was important given how the clan needed trade in the village to keep it going; the donations sent over by the various clan members abroad for their families here would make sure that the daimyo of Yu no Kuni would continue to support this village if only for the economical benefits.

Quite honestly however, the Baihe Village was known for other things aside from its martial artists and the fact that it was a resort town. As a matter of fact, the village's main export was in agricultural goods: gallons of the mud were practically harvested and traded by order to farmers all over the world for a premium price due to the fact that it was really fertile; there are also orders for their surplus of dried herbs for medicine; and on top of that, the village was also known to be an exporter of premium-quality spirits such as the snake wine, and the high-strength firewater that was normally taken during the winter and when someone has a cold.

Huayin took a break from her paperwork to take a look at the photo on her desk. She didn't have much to do today aside from that contract, and so she decided now was a good time to look back.

The photo in question was of her when she was younger, and still in training as the successor to the last matriarch of the clan. Xianglin was a prodigy Nen Master, her sister Mulan was still being the loving delinquent Brawler that she was, and Shizi had the makings of his current body mass beginning to take form; with Fei-ying practically tutoring her in the art of the Striker, everyone else had helped to make her into quite possibly one of the deadliest taijutsu masters in the world, and also surrounded her and one other in the picture: this boy that she was paired with seemed a little girly by her standards at the time, especially with the queue that was tied at the back of his head. He wore a white, wide-sleeved robe made of silk and cotton, with ballooning black pants.

She thought fondly of the picture, because this was of a simpler time when everyone was younger…before the complications of real life had come and made everyone into the people they were today. Who would've thought that a girly-looking boy with an idealistic view of the world would become her husband? And who could have guessed that he'd turned out to be such a good doctor?

Huayin sighed lovingly as she stroked the image of the boy standing next to her in the photo. "I'm sorry you couldn't be here, dear," she said, "you would've liked the boy that was paired with our daughter…and I'm pretty sure he would've liked you too."

Finished with her reverence to the dead, Huayin kissed the tips of her index and middle fingers, and placed them on the face of her husband. She placed the picture back on the desk and walked out of the office for some fresh air, not noticing the picture faintly smiling at her.

…

[Somewhere on Foshan-five minutes later...]

As he looked on at the cliffs, Fei-Ying could not help but feel proud to call this place home…every time he came back here, it only seemed to get even more beautiful as the days went by. It almost made him feel guilty whenever he went out into the wilderness to train even harder; unlike the monks in the temple hereabouts, Fei-Ying was a hermit and an ascetic...most of what he did in his martial arts training was his way of meditation…plus, it was also sort of fun that he gave the cave that Huayin signed off to him to his friend Huoshan.

His train of thought was interrupted when he picked up two sets of feet rushing towards him. Fei-ying smiled, as this was part of the training regimen that he demanded of his proteges; and in all honesty, they were progressing rather well.

"Your average was thirty minutes as of late," he began, turning to see that it was Meilan and Naruto, having just returned with packages, "and I assume you've brought the weapons?"

Meilan had a triumphant look on her face. "I bought two sets, but Naruto bought one."

"Hmm, interesting," he said, sincerely curious as to what the two of them had picked up, "I suppose now is show-and-tell time. I want the both of you to set your purchased weapons out on the ground…that way, I'll know how to train the both of you in the future."

Nodding to each other, Meilan decided to go first. She placed the two boxes in front of her, and opened them one by one. As Fei-ying inspected her choices, he had turned to her with an approving look on his face. "You choose to go with your strengths; that is most wise. But why the bladed tonfas?"

"Well, Naruto-kun is going to be picking up swords in the future, so I wanted to use a weapon that I can actually use to spar with him. Plus, I'm very familiar with them…especially the gloves."

"Oni ni kanabo, eh? Wise indeed. And now for Naruto."

Hearing that, Naruto lay down his suitcase, and thumbed the locks off. What was inside was the set of heavy gauntlets and greaves he'd purchased. "Now that is an interesting choice. Not many Baihe members specialize in these weapons. Care to tell me why you chose them?"

"I picked them up because I wanted to have a better chance of blocking Meilan's punches. And yes, I thought they kinda looked cool."

"While I don't think you should've chosen them for aesthetics alone, I will however applaud you far more than Meilan for working to compensate on your weakness…and it seems I will go on without a dedicated student," he said with feigned dejection, "but either way, I think I can help you here. This is because the both of you you chose weapons that emphasize your strengths: Meilan you chose the bladed tonfas and the fighting gloves, and therefore you need to strengthen your understanding of the fundamentals while also learning grace; Naruto, you will have to work extra hard to increase your strength in addition to what I will be teaching you…but all in all, I am far more impressed with you than with her for choosing to strengthen your weakness."

Upon hearing this, Naruto was unsure if he was proud or exasperated. On the one hand, he'd just won his bet with Meilan…on the other, now he was going to have to work even _**harder**_. 'Eh, well, at least I won the bet.'

Just as he was following Meilan to the training area, Fei-ying had blocked Naruto's entry. "At this point, you and Meilan are getting personalized training sessions," he said, "I want you both to be separated so that you have a fair chance against each other. You'll see the results of your training when you spar again. But don't worry, I am not leaving you out to dry: what I want you to do is to spin around as fast as you can while wearing your weights; and every time you get dizzy and fall down, you have to get back up and start spinning again (you have to top your last spinning time every time you do). If you can tell me why I'm giving you this training whenever I see you next, I will start teaching you techniques for your gauntlets and greaves. Now get to it."

Seeing no other way out of the situation he'd found himself in, Naruto watched as Fei-ying had left the area; no doubt to give Meilan her specialized training for those fancy-ass tonfa of hers. But still, he chose the gauntlets and greaves, so he had nobody else to blame but himself. That said and done, Naruto slipped on the weights, and began twirling around like a top, only to get dizzy and fall to the ground after a few minutes.

…

[Somewhere near the Mizu no Kuni region-four days later…]

The camp was filled with the sounds of people running about, getting things ready for different missions. Assassinations here, thefts there; everywhere, things were running way beyond clockwork…as of late, this was the norm for Minet as she had come with news from a source she'd never thought she'd have to see again.

The island nation of Isla Mistica has been the new homeland of the elves for centuries ever since the continents shifted after the great battle long ago between the so-called "Rikudō Sennin" and his brother versus the "Jūbi". When everything had settled down, word had spread through the shadows for all surviving elves that a new island nation was being founded, and that both High Elves and Dark Elves were welcome to come and settle.

Even in its early years, the elves of Isla Mistica had proven to be more than capable as spies, as their espionage network had been in the world long before the 'legendary' Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin had established his own spy network…as well as outperforming even that of the ANBU splinter cell ROOT. This has gone to the point that their spies were even watching from the shadows as the sons of Ōtsusuki Hagoromo were constantly reborn in the cycle of Samsara, forever locked in battle, and are constantly updated on the next vessels for the (in the queen's words) 'Ōtsusuki Brats', and Minet was the one responsible for that line of intelligence.

As much as she'd rather be at home, sipping away on a drinking binge with a barrel full of Siusha's whiskey before going back to work the next day reviewing the intel reports on the current reincarnation of the Ōtsusuki Brats, Minet had more important work with the Kirigakure Rebels. Today however, she'd not come alone, and she had good news and bad news for the leader of this camp…and somewhere in between, with the sailor mouth she'd had to put up with sporadically. "This shithole looks dirtier than my lab," said the woman standing next to her, "you sure they can take care of my security crew's fuckup?"

The woman in question had disheveled, dyed pink, waist-length hair, and blue eyes that were framed by a pair of small glasses. The outfit she wore consisted of a stark white canvas kimono over a pair of beige slacks and a loose shirt, overall painting the picture of a strikingly beautiful mad scientist. While she seemed dainty, her high-heeled steps had implied that she was no stranger to combat; and even though it looked like wasn't armed, Minet knew better…the woman had a quick draw with the pair of custom-made pistols holstered on the small of her back that fired in three-round bursts-a mistake that many nuke-nin had made from underestimating her in their attempts to rob her clan…it was an even worse mistake when said shinobi threatened her daughter and or her family while robbing her clan. She was also being escorted by a pair of riflemen carrying scoped guns with bayonets, and hovering over her shoulder was a small spherical object that was covered in eight three-faced pyramids.

"Believe me, they're going to need a lot of help," began Minet, as she continued walking briskly with the woman, "besides, in the end it all works out; you get your revenge, Kirigakure is free from tyranny, and we will have avenged the elves that bastard killed. It's a win-win situation."

As the two of them walked towards the tent, the sailor-mouthed woman simply took the sights in stride. Yeah, this was a 'shithole', but then again, what does one expect from a rebel camp? Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw that Minet had opened up the flap to a tent and beckoning her to enter. Inside was a gorgeous-looking red-haired woman with a generous bust looking down on a map of the surrounding area with a pair of bright blue eyes.

"Mei-sama, we already have them cut off in the blockade," said an elf commander in armor, making it clear that she was among Isla Mistica's Knight corps, 'there's no reason for us not to move on in and finish the job.

Mei pondered this carefully. "I suppose you are correct but what will we do to finish the job? We need a massive army to take back this country, but we do not have the resources to mount such a takeover."

"Perhaps a takeover is not required…not yet at least. Maybe the proper bait is required to make the job easier for us." The commander said.

Mei looked at the commander questioningly. "What do you mean?"

The commander looked at a particular spot on the map; it was a representation of the entire Mizu no Kuni region, with white shogi pieces representing rebel ships surrounding the main island of Kirigakure no Sato; the black pieces pointing away from the island, represented the loyalists. So far, the blockade had been held as a stalemate due to ambush tactics attacking ships that attempted to escape the blockade. "A large force like the ones the Mizukage could deploy would win the battle in the open sea. But if we can draw them to an area where our forces can move more freely, that might make things easier for us." The commander said pointing at the specific location on the map to the south of the loyalist fleet. "Here at the Straits of the Uzumaki, we have small and nimble ships that can traverse that strait. If the Mizukage is as arrogant as I think he is, he will commit a large number of ships to try and wipe them out and break the blockade. But they will not be able to move freely in the straits."

"Allowing us to pick them off at our leisure." finished Mei, approving of the tactic fervently, "That's brilliant."

"It would also break the morale of the enemy, making it easier for us to mount a hostile takeover of Kirigakure."

"We're also going to…" it was at this point that Mei had noticed Minet and the scientist arrive with the latter's bodyguard detail. "Minet, what news do you have for us?"

"Mei-sama, I'd like for you to meet Saika Magoichi, head scientist and engineer of Tetsu no Kuni, and matriarch of the Saika clan," began Minet, a serious look in her electric blue eyes, "it just so happens that Yagura has pissed off the Saika clan enough to get them to jump in on our side...with permission from Mifune-taichō."

"What could they have possibly done to bring the Saika clan into the conflict?" asked Mei, sincerely confounded as to what such a prominent clan was doing here. This was due to the fact that the Saika clan was one of the most technologically-advanced clans in the world. "I thought this was a civil war, so why are foreign clans involved?"

Magoichi stepped forward, her anger at the situation still heavy in the air. "We've learned a little while before your civil war started, that those motherfuckers have stolen the blueprints to a brand new weapon, and I expect that those thieving bastards will be using it against you soon." Magoichi said, holding up a copy of the blueprints unfurling the designs to a very peculiar weapon. It was mounted on a tower, and looked to be made of two tubes with one inside the other.

"This is the 406 mm cannon. As designed, it can launch a projectile over thirty miles away and can instantly destroy wooden ships in a single shot." She said shocking the room.

"How can that be? Most cannons can only reach about five miles away." Mei said.

"It's due to the second barrel inside the outer barrel," said Magoichi, as she pointed on the part of the blueprint, she spoke of, "when the projectile is launched, grooves cut inside the barrel add a spin to the shot and it picks up speed. When it hits a ship, the results are devastating."

"Is there anything we can do about it?" Mei asked looking scared.

Magoichi had a small smile. "As a matter of fact you might not have to. They stole the blueprints, but they did not steal the notes we had on it. When we tested the weapon on a wooden ship, it was severely damaged by the recoil. We have to design a whole new class of ship just to handle the guns. We call them Dreadnaughts."

Minet looked at Magoichi. "Metal ships that can float? You must be crazy to think that they can…and besides, where are we going to get the capital for such a project?"

Magoichi wagged her finger. "Says the people that are still trying to reclaim their technological heritage. Besides, that's where my gift to you comes in. Follow me." Magoichi said as the rebel commanders walked behind her. She walked until they came to the shore where some of the rebels were gawking at a large figure on the water. It was tall; it looked as tall as the Hokage Tower with two sets of three of those 406 mm cannons, looming over the water like a giant shark, and looked to be made entirely of metal.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. I present to you my clan's gift to the rebellion. The 'Yatagarasu' and a small number of my clansmen to help crew the vessel."

Mei gawked at the ship. This ship looked like it could destroy Yagura's entire fleet on its own. She turned to Magoichi. "How many of these ships can you make?"

As soon as she heard that, Magoichi turned to face Mei with a sadistic smile on her face. "We can work out a deal. Bottom line is this: you get us the money, we get you more ships. As it is, we have five ships that are smaller than this: three frigates, a destroyer, and a cruiser that could help out with this plan of yours to break your enemies."

Mei tsked. Such an investment would require a massive amount of money; this meant sending her ninja out on high-paying missions to gather the capital needed. And while the Saika clan were willing to help on this endeavor, this also meant asking someone for help in this, the closest of whom would be Konoha; but they might want to invest in these ships as well. On the other hand, sacrifices were necessary to win wars. "Fine, get us your best shipwrights, and we'll work out a deal. Don't worry about the money, we'll get it."

As Magoichi reached out her right hand to Mei, the latter considered exactly what it meant for the deal, but soon remembered all the lives lost to Yagura's bloodline purge…how many innocent lives were claimed by that homicidal maniac. And in a moment, history was made with the shake of a hand. One thing was clear: war was about to change…

…

[Foshan, Baihe Village-the next day...]

Today's lunch was that weird, wrinkly, rubbery-looking, stuff that the more devout Baihe clergymen and women ate instead of meat, a few bamboo skin rolls, some pickled veggies, and a bowl of brown rice on the side. The drink was a piping hot green tea made with leaves from the local camellia farm. It was a pretty simple lunch, and Naruto didn't exactly like it…on second thought, it was not that he hated it, it was good considering that Xianglin cooked it; it's just that the Baihe clan had not completely weaned him off of what Huayin-dono had called an 'unhealthy addiction to a very fattening food'. 'Blasphemy!' he said at the time, 'Ramen is the food of the gods!'. But overtime, he started enjoying other foods. Still, he had to give credit where it was due: Baihe Xianglin was a rather good cook. '_I suppose you have to be, if you're going to be on the road for so long.'_

He used the chopsticks to pick up an orange 'monk-food' puff, and placed it into his mouth to savor the tangy goodness of the sauce before adding it in with the brown rice. There were twelve puffs grouped into threes, each group marinated in a different sauce; the one he'd just eaten was made with a light mandarin orange sauce and some honey, and Naruto had yet to sample the other three groups. It was different, but according to Xianglin, much of the food cooked in these parts were done such a manner to make it as delicious as it was healthy and nutritious to compliment their daily training regimen...which was why there was not a fat person in sight in the village; just lean or bulky muscle with the proper amount of fat in between to support those muscles.

As he continued to eat through his lunch, Naruto began to consider the point of the spinning part of the training with Fei-ying. The good thing however was that he wasn't getting dizzy as easily, but he still didn't get the idea of what he was being trained for. And unfortunately, he didn't have much time at the moment, considering that his meditation lessons with Xianglin were coming up next...come to think of it, he wondered exactly what she'd be teaching him. "So how'd you do with your part of the training, Meilan?"

"I'm learning lots of new techniques," chirped Meilan, "I can't tell you what I'm learning, because we're not supposed to reveal it until we spar, but I can tell you that it's helping me a good deal."

"What do you think Xianglin's going to teach us?"

"I wouldn't know, but I do know it's probably going to help the both of us in the long run. Why she would ask that you bring your guitar for this session, I've got no idea."

After they were done with their meal, Meilan and Naruto put their dishes into the sink and started heading for the shrine, with the latter having to take the time to get his guitar. The second they arrived, they saw Xianglin sitting in seiza position with a scroll open in her lap, chanting Buddhist scripture to herself. "Well, you two have taken your time. I trust Naruto-kun has brought the guitar?"

Upon hearing that, Naruto pulled out the guitar from across his back. "You mind telling me what I'm doing with it?"

"Of course," Xianglin said, smiling warmly as she turned to the both of them, "This time, the two of you are going to play a duet, _**without**_ amplifiers and microphones!"

That was odd, no amps or microphones? At the very concept of the idea, Meilan and Naruto could only look on dumbfounded at the concept. "Uh, no offense, but I thought that acoustic guitars didn't need amplifiers, so why would we need them?"

"Naruto-kun, if you'll allow me to use your guitar, I'll demonstrate to you what I mean." Taking the guitar in her hand after rolling the scroll back up, Xianglin sat up and placed the guitar across her lap before tuning the guitar to her specifications. Once she was done, she began to strum away!

[Play: "Let it Be" by "The Beatles"]

The tone she played was a slow and somber piece…it had the effect of mellowing out the captivated audience Xianglin had gained in Naruto and Meilan. There were no words necessary to describe the way the song was played; but Naruto had noticed that the sound that came out of his guitar was louder and cleaner than when he played. How did she do it?

"And this is what the two of you will be doing," explained Xianglin, finally finished with the song, "you will be using your chakra or Nen energy to serve as your amplifiers and microphones...which leads me to your next long-term project: Naruto, you have to apply chakra to your guitar strings and use it to amplify the sound; Meilan, you will use Nen energy to amplify your voice. Make no mistake, this isn't as simple as it looks…you must use the correct amount of energy at all times during the song: too much power, and the sound becomes noisy; too little, and the sound becomes faint.

"All that aside, training is over for today, but I'll expect you to have picked out a song choice by the time I see you both tomorrow…because I expect you to get this song done perfectly well in two weeks."

Naruto and Meilan had let out a sigh of relief when they found that they'd had a day off. "So, you want to go out on that date Naruto-kun?" asked Meilan.

"Yeah, the thing is I've never gone on a date before," said Naruto, "uhh…but would going to the movies count as a date?"

"A little overdone; but yeah, I think that would be a date…especially when dinner is considered."

"You've got everything planned out in your head, don't you?" asked Naruto, playful accusation in his tone, "So when do you want to go?"

"After we take a shower, kaa-san would want to know what we're doing. Got a movie on mind?"

"Well, I have been invited by another friend to the movies with her dad several times before, but we've mostly seen jidaigeki," said Naruto as he continued to think, "although I did hear of another movie that's just come out; supposed to be pretty funny. Interested?"

Meilan let out a chuckle. "I guess I'll be seeing you tonight then…"

…

[Baihe Village-that night…]

The two of them had walked out of the theater with smiles on their faces and warmed hearts. The movie was a romantic comedy about a fat girl who was in love with a world-famous pianist. As she revealed to the fat guy she was staying with, she wasn't always that way; in fact, she was a real hottie, and that she was the pianist's girlfriend…then that pianist dude goes abroad to study more in his art, and she went on an eating binge, and before she knew it, the poor girl got fat. After hearing that the pianist was looking for her, the fat girl was about to kill herself when her companion suggested that she go on a diet (he was in the cart too); and when she lost all hope, the two of them agreed to work together to lose weight, and a lot of hilarity ensued…but then, as time went by, the two of them started falling in love with each other. Seeing as they were not making any progress, the girl was taken to a health spa where she would lose weight faster and more efficiently; meanwhile, the fat guy moonlighted as a street boxer, taking potshots from anyone who accepted his challenge so that he could pay for the girl's time in the spa. When she finally attained her goal, the girl was reunited with her pianist boyfriend…and then found out from word of mouth what the fat guy did for her. The movie ended with the pianist and the lady he broke up with midway through the movie, and winding up in an eating binge, probably becoming lovers again; the main girl met the fat guy again (who was not so fat anymore) and started becoming actual lovers.

Throughout the movie there were a lot of laughs (the weight-loss program had gotten to the point where they tried having the girl swallow a tapeworm), but at the end of the day, even though it was not his cup of tea, Naruto fully enjoyed the movie. And it seemed that Meilan enjoyed it too, given that nearing the end of the movie, she'd entwined her fingers with his. As a matter of fact, she was still clinging on to his arm very lovingly. This was indeed a good night; he'd only wished that his last birthday went as well as tonight did. All that was left now was to get to dinner, then to go on home before Huayin-sama got worried and decided to kill him for being late.

As he walked through the streets, Naruto kept a close eye on his surroundings. This was indeed a beautiful town, even in the night. However, his thoughts were turned towards a man swinging a sledgehammer around…was he a part of the demolition crew? Naruto paused for a moment to watch the man's motion; he brought the sledgehammer low, around, and high up, before bringing the head down to smash off more rocks to make a new bath…something like…and then it hit him! Now he knew what the spinning was for in his lessons with Fei-ying-sensei!

"What's up?" asked Meilan, curious as to what her date was thinking about at this moment.

Naruto let out a small chuckle as he turned to face Meilan. "Nothing much," he lied, "just thinking about where I was going to take you for dinner."

Meilan turned to Naruto with a scrutinizing look on her face. "You're not going to try and get another bowl of ramen are you?" she asked accusingly, "Last time you did that, kaa-san threatened to make you sit at the table, staring at an empty plate…and make you watch as everyone at the table ate without you."

"I know!" groaned Naruto, still frustrated at the deprivation of his favorite food, "And besides, I'm not going to a ramen stand! I'm just looking for...a decent place to have that serves good food."

The skeptical look on Meilan's face spoke levels of her disbelief…but after a moment, a shrug was all it took to tell Naruto that she was giving him the benefit of the doubt. "Okay then, where do you want to eat?"

"I'm still looking," said Naruto, looking around before he finally found a spot that caught his fancy! And he pointed his finger at a place! "Ah! There we go!"

Meilan found where Naruto was pointing, and saw that it was the "Spice of Life" restaurant. "That place is a curry house," she observed, "they serve a lot of really spicy food, lots of outsiders can't handle it. You sure you want to go there?"

"What, are you afraid of a little spice?"

"All right, I'll go with you," said Meilan, the undertone of 'your funeral' in her sing-song voice, "but you've been warned!"

They walked and settled down to eat. Ordering their drinks, they started talking about the movie they'd just seen, when their dishes had arrived; Meilan had ordered a dish of curry with beef tendon and cubes, while Naruto ordered the lamb. What Naruto didn't know was that as was custom in a shop like this, most of the food was really spicy and the curry lamb he'd ordered was no exception. When Meilan ate the beef, she was fine until the aftertaste hit and she was fanning her mouth, reaching for her glass. When she looked at Naruto, she saw tears coming out of his eyes, and that he was sweating…this was definitely too spicy for him. She then watched to her amusement as he desperately reached for his glass and gulped down his milk really quickly.

The night went on very humorously as the two of them ate their dinner…and from that day on, since it was his first time eating curry, Naruto had dubbed the dish 'the Devil's gift to humanity'; because as much as he enjoyed the food, it seemed to have a 'killer' of a reputation around these parts.

…

[Somewhere on Foshan-the next day…]

The time had come for Naruto and Meilan to spar…Fei-ying was watching over the fight, and serving as a referee; along with Yamato, who decided to come and watch for Naruto's progress as per their deal.

Naruto stood in a loose position, ready to lead in what appeared to be a cat-stance, gauntlets and greaves ready to lead if he had to; Meilan seemed to favor a tiger stance with both bladed tonfas in front of her, bouncing around to keep herself in motion.

Before long, Fei-ying had let out a very loud and resounding "Hajime!", prompting both Naruto and Meilan to clash! Naruto started the fight by attempting a low kick to trip Meilan, who front-flipped over Naruto's head in an attempt to get him from behind, only to leap backwards as Naruto had managed to swing around and attempt to strike Meilan with a spinning back fist, that soon transitioned smoothly into an aerial roundhouse kick; both of which were dodged before Naruto was forced to weave around a straight punch and ducking under a wide swing with the tonfa, before managing to trip Meilan with a leg sweep.

As soon as she hit the ground, Meilan recovered from getting tripped soon enough to roll away from Naruto attempting to perform an elbow drop. Her counterattack soon began as she moved in, spinning her tonfa around in such a manner as to bring the longer blade out for offense, and spinning her whole body around as she began to dance around Naruto's heavier attacks, managing to get in a few small cuts so that he had no chance to get back on the offense. However, forcing Naruto into defense worked in his favor, as he waited a few moments before was able to break out of Meilan's offense, and then grab her by the collar of her training qipao as soon as her arms were spread apart.

"My turn!" he uttered under his breath ominously. He then picked her up by the sleeve before throwing her back on the ground, and then sitting astride of her body with his knees on her shoulders before readying himself for his attack. "You give up?"

Unfortunately, his momentary sense of victory was interrupted as soon as he felt himself being lifted off of Meilan and then flipped over before watching as she got back up. "Not quite!" she declared challengingly with a smile.

The fight continued as Meilan started dancing around even more of Naruto's attacks and slashing away at him. Meanwhile, Naruto used his gauntlets to deflect her slashes by striking at the face of the blades, while taking advantage of the heavy weight on his arms get him into position to punch her. Their footwork as they attacked and counterattacked transformed from a straight-out fight to a ballroom dance: neither side surrendering, but both sides defending their central lines lest they lose their balance and the match. It was also obvious that both were making steps in and out of the spar that defined each fighting style as appropriate for each weapon: Naruto tended to be more aggressive with his footwork, taking advantage of the protection his greaves granted, and attempting to trip Meilan with sweeping low-kicks, rarely ever backing off; Meilan on the other hand used her steps to dance around and add more momentum to her attacks while also attempting to stomp on his instep.

As Yamato observed the fight, he could not help but notice the difference in the way Naruto fought. Did he think the boy was ready? Without a doubt, the boy had indeed made leaps and bounds since he'd first come here. True, he was not as skilled in taijutsu as Meilan was, but he could see that Naruto was catching up with her at a very good pace; and he could tell, because while Naruto's form was sloppy compared to her dance-like movements, he was able to give her a good fight by timing his counterattacks just right while also focusing a lot on using the momentum from the weight of his swings to translate a circular motion into solid impact…coupled with his quick-learning speed, and the result would be a shinobi that was difficult to beat.

"That's enough!" shouted Fei-ying, catching both Naruto and Meilan off-guard, "it's clear to me that the both of you have improved to the point that you are starting to become more evenly-matched. Naruto, you mind telling me what brought this on?"

"Hai, sensei," he said, "I got the idea watching some of the demolition crew using sledgehammers to make a new bath, and I thought, 'why don't I apply that to tomorrow's sparring practice?' And then I also figured out, that you had me go through that spin training so that when I have to do that kind of fighting, I won't get as dizzy, because using the gauntlets and greaves tends to use a lot of round motions like swinging a hammer around."

Fei-ying clapped his hands. "Excellent deduction, Naruto. Now, I think you're ready to learn techniques that use the gauntlets and greaves to a greater extent."

"And while we're on the subject, do you remember what I promised you on the first day we came here, Naruto?" asked Yamato.

"That you'd teach me that cool jutsu?" asked Naruto, a hopeful tone in his voice.

At that, Yamato chuckled mirthfully. "Glad you remembered. That match I saw just today was enough to prove to me that your taijutsu has improved…which means as of tomorrow, I'm going to teach you the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu in addition to your lessons with me."

Naruto could only feel the excitement in those words! He'd improved big time! And now he was finally learning his new jutsu! He could feel that things were going to get better!

…

_**A/N: **_

_**Kurogane7: I wonder how many people will catch the movies I have described throughout this story…in this chapter, it would've been a Princess Gale movie, but my esteemed colleague KokuenDG would probably criticize me on my choice, and given how old Koyuki would likely be at this time, it's probably best that I make it so that Naruto will not come across her movies until later on.**_

_**UnitedOsprey1991: Me and Kuro talked about The Civil War section with Mei and the elves. Given the technology seen in the show we put the level of technology at about the mid-19th century. As seen with the ships this was when metal ships like the Yatagarasu made an appearance. We debated whether to use Ironclads like in the American Civil War or Dreadnaughts which were developed after a small but very influential battle in the Civil War. We went with the latter for several reasons but the main one was we have a good idea how to weaken Yagura. The results won't show up for several chapters but suffice to say they will be a history lesson.**_

…

_**Vocabulary/Culture Notes:**_

_**Huoshan-the name is written as "**__**火山"**__**, which is Mandarin for "Volcano"**_

'_**Oni ni kanabo'-the saying literally means 'giving an ogre a club', which translates to 'giving strength to the strong'; this has roots in Japanese mythology where the oni are traditionally known to wield a studded club known as a 'kanabo' (sometimes known as a 'tetsubo'.**_

_**Samsara-the wheel of life, and the origin of the 'Rinne' in 'Rinnegan'. It was an originally Hindu concept where everyone is born, lives, dies, and (after karma is taken into account) reincarnated.**_

_**Naruto and Meilan's Training-at its core principles, training in the Baihe martial arts is similar in a way to the Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu, where practitioners are expected to help stretch their limbs, spar with each other, and perform oil massages on each other (real-life Kalaripayattu however, is not as intimately done between partners as it is here). It is also mixed in with Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, and Yukyuzan Anji's fighting style.**_


	6. You've Got Talent!

_**A/N: And here we are! The end of the Baihe Clan Arc! Hopefully, this chapter is up to standards, and that everyone enjoys it. This story is not getting as many reviews as I'd like as of late, but I am getting plenty of favorites and follows for it; don't be shy and review, would you kindly?**_

{Play: "From the New World, 4th movement", from "Asura's Wrath"}

[Foshan, Baihe Village, eight months later…]

A year had passed since GSD had left Naruto here to learn the fundamentals for combat, and as Huayin had said, it should have been more than enough to correct the problems with his stance. He'd long since improved in the past eight months, and the tips that Yamato-sensei had given him about the Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu were by far the biggest saving grace that Naruto was reluctant to thank him for. Thanks to that, he was able to be in multiple places at once, training in the various subjects that his teachers taught him in. The only problem he had with it was that every time the clones were dispelled all at once, he had a killer headache; still, it did make training all the more convenient for him.

Up until now, he's had ten clones going to each of his teachers (as per Yamato's teachings), and learning extra moves from them while he worked to condition his body to be able to handle the stresses of the training that they would put him through. With the Kage Bunshins, he'd gotten a good deal smarter, book-wise…plus, the books he'd read had strengthened what he needed to know to survive. That, and he was able to learn how to throw kunai and shuriken with a pretty good amount of accuracy at both moving and still targets. A few years' worth of lessons, done in months.

Right now however, he was currently staring Meilan down in another sparring match, and he was feeling the tension of the match reaching him. He had his gauntlets and greaves on, and was waiting for her to make the first move with her fighting gloves ready. Huayin herself had come up to view the progress for herself, along with Toph, who had come on over from the quarry to see for herself if the lessons she'd drilled into 'lunkhead' and 'pretty-girl's' heads '_I suppose she also wants to have a good time'_ thought Naruto, turning his head to regard the audience. The other teachers were there, watching the results of their work, thereby adding to the tension that Naruto felt. He can't afford to make them look bad! '_I've had all year to correct the problems with my fighting style, and I ain't going to disappoint!'_

Without a word, the spar had begun! With Naruto leading the match with a low kick in an attempt to trip up Meilan, who had backflipped away from the attack, while using the momentum from the missed kick to duck under a punch to the face before finally land a jumping uppercut under her chin that sent her flying back a bit before she recovered.

"Very good," she said upon landing, and moving quickly to attempt a jump-kick that Naruto blocked, "you've gotten a lot better than when you first started."

"And I have your clan's training to thank for that!" answered Naruto, moving from the block to land a left straight on Meilan with his gauntleted hand, before she managed to counterattack with a jab to his solar plexus that would have knocked him back, were it not for Naruto planting his foot at the last moment.

What followed was a high-speed boxing match between Naruto and Meilan. The sounds of their punches came off as a light 'whoosh' as straights where dodged, a quick tap of flesh meeting flesh as hooks were blocked and then countered. Naruto knew that other than her brute strength, Meilan had the advantage in terms of speed, talent, and experience, as well as her Nen powers; and so to compensate, he had to anticipate her every movement…every punch she was about to land, he had to predict where it was going at high speed.

Meilan on the other hand knew that Naruto was wearing his weapons, and had to be very cautious; as well as to watch out for moments where he had the opportunity to throw kunai at her…yeah, they were weighted rubber kunai for the sake of training, but they still hurt like hell! Especially because Yamato had taught him how to throw things better, and it stood to reason Naruto's aim was getting better. Her solution? Keep him in the boxing match so that he had no chance to pull out the kunai, and she did that by making sure to attack him at every blind spot to keep him from escaping, thereby giving him no distance to throw anything.

Naruto however was as unpredictable as his name implied, as he figured out Meilan's strategy. He leaned forward to let her fists glance off the Gauntlet and grabbed her hand. She brought it down and wrapped his legs around her arm.

Meilan struggled to break out of the hold, lashed out with her legs and used her flexibility to wrap her legs around Naruto's head. The battle looked like it was a stalemate, especially since Naruto had gotten strong enough to nearly catch up to Meilan's strength. It was only a matter of time before one of them broke the grapple, and the fight would continue on from there…either Naruto would cause enough pain with the greaves on his legs squeezing her arm to make her surrender, or Meilan would find the strength to perform a blood-choke with his head between her legs. The tension was so thick that one could literally carve through it with a knife, but either way, one of them was going down!

"Match!" called out Huayin, standing up upon seeing that the fight was going nowhere, "Round one is a tie."

Upon hearing that, both Naruto and Meilan had let go of their grips, the former taking the time to catch his breath, while the latter started stretching her arm in place. After getting their second wind, the two of them slipped back into fighting stances. "Begin!"

This time, Naruto played it smart. He leaped backwards and used the opportunity to pull out a rubber kunai, before jumping high into the air to throw it downwards at Meilan, who simply took a step backwards, before Naruto charged in with the intention of landing a jab to her solar-plexus. Meilan's answer was to leap into the air, grab Naruto's head in between her knees, and used the power stored in her latissimus dorsi muscles to bend backwards and throw Naruto off to the side of the arena with a hurricanrana. Naruto was able to come to a skidding halt, watching as Meilan was running in seemingly about to build momentum for a jump-kick but in reality she waited for the right moment to slide in; she was going for his legs with a scissor kick to knock him off balance, and pin him down. He responded with a well-timed elbow drop, which she took to her chest.

"Round two is over!" called out Huayin, ending the round, "Naruto wins! Get ready for round 3."

Round 3…this was it! This would not only determine the winner of the match, which would in turn show Naruto just how far he'd gotten. If he won, then he rocked! If he didn't, then he still had a lot to work on to catch up to Meilan. That being said, the two of them caught their breath before they slipped back into their respective fighting stances, Naruto moved back into the stance that Fei-ying had showed him…the time for holding back was over! Meilan however, simply took the time to exchange her fighting gloves for her bladed tonfas, having the smaller blades out. This would be an even greater challenge now that Meilan was ready to draw blood.

The fight began when Huayin let out a resounding "Begin!"

Meilan began the fight by kicking off, and transitioning into a jump-kick that Naruto countered by performing a jumping uppercut, successfully landing it under her chin before she quickly landed and attempted to slash at Naruto's abdomen, which he hopped backwards from, and answered with a spinning jump kick. Meilan rolled under the kick, twirled her bladed tonfas around as she got up, and attempted to slash again at Naruto, only to have one arm grabbed. Thinking quickly, she then managed to land a kick to his side, forcing Naruto to let her go before she twirled her body around, and managed to wrap her arm around Naruto's neck in such a manner that the longer blade of the tonfa was ready to cut at his throat.

"And the match is mine!" she said triumphantly, "Looks like you still need work!"

Now was the moment! He quickly grabbed Meilan by the arm, and threw her over his shoulder, thus continuing the fight when he hopped backwards to throw three kunai at Meilan! Watching her back-flip away from the projectiles, Naruto used that moment to move in while she was in midair in apparent attempt to tackle her. Bracing herself for whatever could come her way, Meilan was finally surprised when Naruto suddenly stopped, turned his body to face her, and used the momentum of his attack to land a double-jab to her stomach that she barely deflected, and responded by swiftly landing a knee to his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. She then managed to use the momentum of that last kick to land a series of rapid kicks before landing on that foot to land another series of rapid kicks with the other leg, and then finishing off the combo by kicking him with a straight kick to the chin.

"Match! The winner is Meilan!" called out Huayin, watching as Naruto recovered from that last kick, "I'm proud of both of you, even though there is no definite winner here, you've both improved significantly over the year."

"...and it is an improvement I'm happy to see."

Upon hearing that line, Naruto turned to find someone behind him. The bald head and grizzled appearance of his elderly master had returned! "GSD-SENSEI!" he shouted, before running to the man happily! He did come back after a year as he had promised, after all! "Where've you been?"

"Lots of places," he answered, "all that time I spent traveling was used for honing my skills so that I can finally teach you the art of swordplay, in addition to controlling your curse."

At first, Naruto was excited that his sensei had come back, and would train him in the things he'd promised to teach him. However, it finally sunk in that it meant that he would be leaving the village…probably for a long time. "Is something the matter?" asked GSD.

"It's nothing…it's just…"

"Don't worry," said GSD, understanding what his student must have been feeling, "we're not leaving immediately. I'm too tired to be going anywhere anyway. Just give me a few days' rest...but starting tomorrow, I will give you your first lesson.

…

{Play: "Great Buddha Temple" by Noriyuki Asakura from "Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven"}

[Elsewhere…]

In a shady bar, a man with tiny sunglasses sat at a table with a very fine spirit in his glass. His greasy appearance, and the arrogant manner in which he carried himself, made it clear that he did not make an honest living; despite the professionalism shown in his state of dress, and the two yōjinbō flanking him at the sides, nothing could hide the black hole that obviously resided in his heart.

Sitting across from him was a man in a bandana, his face hidden under a mask. His black overcoat had a pattern of red clouds adorning the bottom. The way he was built had made it clear that he was a shinobi, if the hitae-ate he wore on his head didn't make it obvious enough; its scratched-out surface had marked him as a nuke-nin, but the engraving on the face revealed that he was once from Takigakure no Sato. He had a dark tan skin tone, and his eyes were green with reddened sclera…the only thing he shared with the man sitting across from him was the greed in his soulless eyes.

"I've been told that your organization handles…_**problems**_. Is that true?" asked the shorter man.

"That would depend entirely on the problem," answered the deadpan of the taller man, "tell me who the mark is, Gato."

"Oh nothing, just some bitch that runs a casino in Tanzaku City," answered the man, now known as Gato, with a sinister smirk on his face, "I'm willing to pay whatever it takes to make that slut pay for humiliating me, then running me out of town! She should've taken my offer to be my partner! In fact, come to think of it, if you manage to bring her to me alive, so that I can bend her over and make her my slave, then that would mean a pretty big bonus."

"She's probably sick in the head if she refused a deal from the founder and CEO of the Gato Shipping Company. Does this 'bitch' have a name?"

"But of course, her name's Wei Mulan."

There was a look of fear that flitted through the taller shinobi's eyes. The tone of his voice had a subtle hint of hoping that what he'd just heard was not what he thought it was. "Come again? I thought you said her surname was 'Wei'."

"Yeah, that's her. What, you know her?"

The taller man seemed to have taken on a slightly pale complexion for a brief moment before he slid out of his chair and beckoning his partner to meet him outside. He then turned to face the shorter man, his response was a terse "Sorry, can't help you."

There was shock on his face before it soon turned to outrage. "What the hell?! Are you refusing me?!"

"If you're expecting me to take on a 'Wei', you're sorely mistaken," said the nuke-nin, "I may be crazy enough to do anything for money, but even I draw the line there!"

"What the fuck is up with you? I thought the almighty 'Kakuzu the Heart-stealer' had no conscience!"

The look in the man known as "Kakuzu the Heart-stealer" spoke volumes of what he thought of Gato. If this greedy little wretch didn't know who he was dealing with, now he would. "While all members of the Wei clan have a different surname, they are all in fact disowned Baihe clan members! It would be suicide to even think of taking on such a job!"

Upon hearing exactly who it was that he was dealing with, Gato paid him no heed. "So? The Baihe clan are nothing but a bunch of pussies that never leave their homeland! I'm pretty sure you can take them!"

"Say what you will, the entire shinobi world is afraid of them," added Kakuzu, his tone starting to truly terrify Gato, "they may not have the power of jutsu to help them fight, and they may be bleeding heart pacifists, but this doesn't change the fact that everyone in the Baihe clan, even the exiles, is dangerous even for a Kage-level shinobi; and that power can range from mid-level taijutsu specialists with above-average strength for the average baseline member, to powerhouses of divine might that are among the elites. And since I'm in a charitable mood today, I will tell you here and now so that you don't waste time and money: drop the matter if you value your life."

Leaving a now-speechless Gato behind, Kakuzu met with a man in a nylon mask outside the bar. He wore the same attire he did, with the addition of a black sandogasa and scarf. He also wore a sort of cloth headgear the fit over his head with a t-shaped visor. He carried a daishō at his side, which was strange enough, considering how old-fashioned the practice was even among samurai. His face was seemingly frozen in a toothy and sinister grin, and his eyes had a look of bloodlust in them. "That's a first," he said, following his walking partner, "I didn't think you'd turn down a job. It was high-paying too."

"Trust me when I tell you, Jin-e, that there are some jobs even _**I**_ find are not worth the reward," shot back Kakuzu, "attacking either the Wei clan or the Baihe is tantamount to suicide. I'm fairly certain even a ronin such as yourself would recognize that."

"True, but you seemed be speaking from experience. Mind enlightening me on that?"

The look that Kakuzu shot at the man known as Jin-e was enough to send the message. "If you must know, the last time I fought a Baihe clan member, it didn't end well…even though I did kill the bitch that was their matriarch at the time, she made me pay for my victory with pains that have been plaguing me for generations," he said, with his voice taking on a colder atmosphere, "even now, my body still remembers every punch and kick she delivered."

"Was it that bad?" Jin-e asked.

Kakuzu looked at his partner. "You have no idea; I still remember my chest cavity around two of my hearts collapsing after puncturing one of them from being punched in those areas. I was forced to retreat and find new hearts before the rest of the clan decided to avenge their matriarch. Even if I did survive the encounter, it would only have ended as a Pyrrhic Victory that would have only served to make my suffering even worse than it would be today. I kid you not, no amount of money is worth going after the Wei clan, much less the Baihe clan."

Jin-e laughed. "Then I guess that pudgy bastard didn't think a clan name would frighten an S-ranked missing nin. But given your reasoning, I can't fault you for backing out. Hell, from the way you talk about them, I'd much rather deal with Hajime-taichō and my former Shinsengumi colleagues."

There was a reason that Kakuzu didn't like Udō Jin-e, and his hatred of the man was probably based on nothing short of racism; after all, the man was a samurai, which he saw as an inferior annoyance. The only reason that the leader tolerated his entry into the organization was because his former ties with Tetsu no Kuni's elite counterterrorism force, the Shinsengumi, would prove to be useful in the future should the Akatsuki choose to make a move on the samurai; not that Kakuzu believed they needed it.

However, if Jin-e were anything to go by, the samurai were actually starting to wise up and actually use chakra. Preposterous! But still, the way he talked about his former commander, Hajime Saitō, probably spoke volumes of how much Tetsu no Kuni was changing…the man was said to be one of the foremost fighters in the country since the passing of the infamous Miyamoto Musashi; and, with the Saika clan collaborating with the samurai, Tetsu no Kuni's technology was moving along in leaps and bounds to the future. Come to think of it, Kakuzu had heard that this 'industrial revolution' was also happening in Yukigakure, and that advanced weapons technology was also being developed there.

Bah! That won't change anything! No matter what technological developments Tetsu no Kuni, or even Yukigakure, manages to bring out, nothing could compare to the raw power of chakra! And as far as Kakuzu was concerned, those two nations were weak, and would remain weak forever! If Tetsu no Kuni's general Mifune was not able to beat Sanshou'o no Hanzo in that conflict, then what hope did they have?

…

[Outskirts of Baihe Village─two days later…]

Well, when GSD-sensei said he was going to give Naruto an assignment, he surely didn't disappoint. It just so happened that the first assignment given to Naruto was to take that kunai he'd been given for his birthday, and use it to shave down a long and heavy piece of wood that used to be a young red oak. Apparently, his job was to make a sword-like object for training purposes. GSD-sensei's words on using the kunai were as follows: "Your kunai is not bad as a weapon, but it is best used as a tool for general purpose work. Don't use it as a weapon unless you are out of options, as you will likely get proper swords in the future."

Taking the heavy stick he had been carving away at for the past hour or so, Naruto had given it a few test swings. Why he was doing this was primarily because of a story he'd been told by GSD-sensei: a long time ago, a samurai from Mizu no Kuni by the name of Miyamoto Musashi woke up and realized he was late to a duel, and so he ran to get a boat. On the way, he realized that he'd forgotten his daishō back at the inn, and so he took an oar and started carving on it to make it into a weapon that would be known as the world's first suburitō. As soon as he got to Ganryu Island somewhere near Kirigakure no Sato, Musashi immediately went into the duel with his rival Sasaki Kojiro and his nodachi Monohoshizao. All it took for the man that terrorized shinobi long after his death to kill his rival was a single strike on the head from his suburitō.

Naruto took that story to mean that sometimes shit happens, and you'll be found without a weapon…which was why he was learning to make a wooden sword for emergencies. Just as well; he knew all too well how dangerous blunt-force trauma could be, even for training weapons. After all, getting punched at almost full strength by Meilan throughout his training with the Baihe clan was more than certain to nail the lesson into his head. This was the third bokken he'd carved so far, which he'd done to keep extras in case any of them broke.

"You okay, Naruto-kun?"

He would've jumped at the surprise were it not for the fact that Naruto knew that it was Meilan. That, and he seemed too depressed to care. The sincere concern in her voice for him was very telling. He then tried to put up a facade for her. "Nothing to worry about. Just thinking is all."

Unconvinced by his act, Meilan had her hands akimbo with a knowing look on her features. "Naruto, I know you enough to know when something's wrong. What's up?"

"It's just…back in the village, I didn't have too many friends," sighed Naruto, starting to explain himself, "that, and a lot of the adults seemed to glare at me, if not outright ignore me. I also noticed them whispering about me behind my back when they didn't think I was listening. They called me 'demon-child', 'evil brat', and a lot of other names. Here, I don't get that; around here, I'm actually loved! People seem to actually like me! They smile, and are nice to me! Hell, because of your clan, I learned about being polite. I guess, I wish I didn't have to leave is what I'm trying to say."

Letting out an understanding sigh, Meilan took a seat next to Naruto as he continued to carve away and inspect his improvised bokken. "I don't think you'll ever truly leave this place," she said, looking wistfully at the scenery before her, "everyone that comes here to relax often winds up leaving with really good memories. So long as you have fond memories of us, I think you'll always be welcome here."

"That would probably make things harder," he answered, "I love this place so much that I don't want to leave…but I know I have to. If I don't learn how to control the curse on my arm, then I'll only be a danger to everyone I've ever cared about; you and your entire clan included."

"I know," said Meilan, watching as Naruto continued to whittle away at the branch with a lot of concentration, "that's why I spoke to kā-san about coming with you."

That last remark had caused Naruto's hand to jerk…luckily, it didn't cut the hand holding the branch. He then turned to look at Meilan with a bit of shock in his eyes. "Let's face it, you're not very good at taijutsu, so somebody has to make sure you keep up the practice, and keep you fit enough to use those fancy-shmancy swords you're likely going to come across. Besides, it'll give me something else to learn."

"Maybe I'll have an actual training partner while I'm traveling," said Naruto, going back to shaving away at the branch, "so I take it your mom approved? Otherwise, you wouldn't be coming to me right now."

"Oh yeah."

After a moment of silence, Naruto decided to change the subject. "So, how long until we have to go for the recital?"

The recital that Naruto had just spoken of was, as Xianglin had put it, a 'final' (whatever that meant) for what they'd learned; the two of them were to participate in the upcoming annual festival. The last song the that they'd performed in front of her was just a 'mid-term' (whatever that was) that they'd performed…eda…ada…adeq… '_Gah! Damn it! Why couldn't Xianglin-sensei just say that our performance was just so-so?!'_ Anyway, this song had to be performed way better than the last, and the effects had to be felt by the audience or else she'd fail them both. "Just a few hours. You think you're ready?"

"I think we'll nail it." said Naruto, giving the improvised bokken a few test swings. Among the things he needed to check for his bokken were balance and durability; given that it was made from red oak, the wood was of course going to be of a pretty good balance between weight and durability. "And since this will be a goodbye performance, I'll be sure to perform at my best tonight."

"But what about the fact that this will be on the air?" asked Meilan, "You're going to be judged on live TV in front of the whole world by critics who are coming on down here from every corner of the Elemental Nations tonight for the festival."

"Of course I'm scared!" shot back Naruto, "I'm scared as hell of messing up! But I've got to do it anyway…if I can't handle that kind of pressure, then who knows? I might freak when I have to fight someone. And if I even think of running away, Xianglin-sensei will probably kill me…and besides, Toph will be joining in on the action, so we're all set!"

Over the course of their musical training, Naruto and Meilan's duet had turned into a trio the day that Toph decided that she wanted in on the action. One day, as she heard the two of them practicing, she stated that their music needed more 'oomph', and then she revealed that Shizi recommended that she take up music lessons with Xianglin to find other ways of blowing off steam. It turned out that she was a killer with drums.

And in addition to that, Naruto soon learned to play bass and electric guitars while honing his skill with the acoustic guitar thanks to the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu; luckily, the skill in playing the acoustic guitar transferred to the electric guitar, and to some extent the bass…the challenge being that while the acoustic guitar only needed a consistent chakra flow, electric and bass guitars needed a fluctuating flow to compensate for the need of an actual alternating electric current. Meilan on the other hand decided to pick up the piano to supplement her singing ability, as well as to make her fingers more agile…this made her training much easier as she had much more time to focus on just one instrument apart from her voice.

Meilan let out a sigh of reassurance. "You're right, we're going to nail that competition!"

…

[Higurashi Arsenal, Konohagakure no Sato─four hours later…]

Boredom was hitting Tenten hard as she flipped through the channels, hoping to find something to watch after a long day of missions with her team. Quite frankly, she'd wished her dad took his time with the latest would-be thief that tried to rob the arsenal…surprisingly, the offender was a shinobi that was beaten to a pulp by the time she got home. She then watched as he grabbed the thieving moron by his neck, ran forward a bit, threw him into a wall such that he rebounded from some ropes that were pulled taut, jumped into the air to catch the shinobi, and finish the combo off by breaking the moron's back across his shoulders upon landing. He would've then hung the asshole by his ankles in front of the store to make an example of him, but the shinobi patrollers took the thief away before her dad could make good on that plan of action.

Overall, things were a little busier…after that day in the hospital, the Uchiha twins had become permanent residents in their home when Mikoto-sama recovered. Now, the family of two had grown to be a family of five; given how close the twins had become with Tenten. This was also helped along with their attempts at playing matchmaker. A lot of their tries to push her dad with their mom often wound up with funny consequences. '_Hmmm…maybe I can think of another way to get dad with Mikoto-sama.'_

Well, nothing on TV so far. Looks like─finally! It's on!

"What're you watching?" asked a voice from behind, startling Tenten for a bit. Standing on the couch behind her was Setsuka and her sister Setsuna.

"Daddy!" she called out, "The Baihe Clan Arts Festival is on!"

"Baihe Clan Arts Festival?"

"Yeah, it takes place in the Baihe clan village in Yugakure," began Tenten, "it's pretty much a big talent show where participants have to perform on live TV in front of four judges. Each performance is different; there are acrobatic acts, singing acts, dancing acts, even animal acts. Every judge's comments can make or break the act."

"Sounds very tense."

"Of course," said Hiten, walking into the room, his goggles lifted and soot being cleaned off as he took a seat next to Tenten on the couch, "While the contest works on public opinion, the judges also have a say. All four of them are highly credible, and have an eye for talent; whether you make it as an entertainer or not, is based heavily on their say…so the contestants have to perform to impress those judges with just one act."

"What's on?" asked Mikoto, walking into the room with a curious look in her eyes.

"Baihe Clan Arts Festival is on tonight," answered Hiten, patting on a seat next to Tenten and inviting her over as the twins found the other couches.

"Oooh, a lot of great artists come from all over the world for this event," she commented, taking a seat, "I still remember that last time I stayed over at your house to watch the Festival…especially since my favorite performer had her start there."

The performer that Mikoto spoke of was a female dancing violinist that often collaborated with artists from Kaminari no Kuni to make a mixture of elegant violin music with heavy electronic sounds. "I wonder who is going to make it now!" she said to herself as she made herself comfortable.

…

[Hyūga Complex─a two hours later…]

The acts were progressing along. Given that Kaoru Jimon himself had come along this year to spice up the coverage of this year's Baihe Clan Arts Festival in place of Sutarn Howa, it was even bigger. The man was known for being called the "Shinigami" in the entertainment industry due to the fact that his word had so much power that he could devastate your future career as a singer. The man had already dismissed a lot of the competitors that displeased him with their acts. Joining him were Miru B, a dark-skinned woman from Kaminari no Kuni and formerly part of a rather famous girl band; Hi-D Kurumu, a fashion designer and model, also from Kaminari no Kuni that was formerly married to world-famous Kumogakure shinobi and singer C-L; and finally, a bald comedian from Yugakure by the name of Mantou Houyi.

As she sat down on the couch to watch with her younger sister Hanabi, Hinata almost felt sorry for some of the Baihe clan members that chose to participate in this year's competition. It was a good thing that Neji wasn't around to watch this; he'd probably say something like 'they were fated to lose anyway'. But in all honesty, some members of the clan were probably not going to survive as entertainers anyway with the horrible singing and dancing skills she'd seen thus far. There were a few that caught her attention in a good way, one of whom in particular she thought had promise as a musician: a masked performer in a mouse-like helmet playing a sort of music that made her feel like dancing with the heavy beats coming from his DJ table .

The dancing and the partying seemed to draw on for the past two hours, some of them impressed Hinata and Hanabi with their skill. "Do you think this is the end of the show?" asked a starstruck Hanabi.

"Not really," answered Hinata, "I've heard that the heiress of the clan is participating this year. I suppose they're saving her for last."

Over the past year, Hinata had changed. Long gone was the stutter, and in its place was a more confident girl with a bit of a rebellious streak. In the beginning, many members of the Main House had taken a liking to bullying her, causing her to grow up with little in the way of confidence. Even Neji seemed to join in on the bullying once or twice, which only seemed to make the problem worse (the majority of the Cadet Branch however, adored her to no end, and often made Neji pay dearly for his part in bullying her). Coupled with her seemingly abysmal taijutsu skill, and the amount of ridicule she took seemed to be at the peak.

Now, after getting a confidence boost from a desire to impress Naruto as soon as he got back (and maybe more), as well as a desire to protect her younger sister, Hinata began fighting back! Granted, she still avoided conflict whenever possible due to her reluctance to cause pain (and to insult her bullies), but when push came to shove, she was more than capable of dishing out whatever it was she took. Whether it was from the elders or Neji, she could more than hold her own if need be, and Kami help the fool that got the idea to put Hanabi-chan in harm's way.

At the moment, she was enjoying a softer moment with Hanabi watching the coverage of the Baihe Clan Arts Festival…something she remembered that their mother enjoyed to no end. Their father was too busy with clan affairs to join in, but she could tell that he wanted to watch too; if only to remember the good days he had with his wife.

"Nee-chan, is that the boy you like so much?"

Shaking out of her moment of reverie, Hinata took a look on the television screen, and saw that Naruto-kun was indeed on the stage in front of the judges!

…

[Baihe Village…]

The full force of the audience had finally hit Naruto the second he set foot on the stage. All those eyes on him, all those murmurs among the crowd just waiting for him. Add the fact that he was on live TV, and it was icing on the cake. Now the whole world was watching him, and he was feeling the pressure.

With a single gulp, he took his place with Toph and Meilan nearby. "And who is this that's playing for tonight?" asked one of the judges, his hairdo almost looking like a crew-cut for sailors. This was very likely to be Kaoru Jimon, world-renowned talent scout, and likely the hardest judge to impress tonight.

"I'm Baihe Meilan," said Meilan, seemingly lowering the tension of the audience with her speaking voice, "these are my bandmates Beifong Toph, and Uzumaki Naruto. My band and I are going to perform a song for you tonight."

"I notice you've got two extra instruments up there," pointed out the bald judge, Mantou Houyi, "where are the other band members?"

"Naruto here is a shinobi in training, so he has a trick or two."

Seemingly impressed by what they were hearing, the three judges nodded in approval. "Well, I wish you good luck tonight," said the dark-skinned judge Miru B, obviously interested in what they had just heard, "so show us what you've got."

Now it was on! Naruto moved his fingers together in a t-shape, and channeled chakra through the hand-seal to create two Kage Bunshins; all three images of the same boy walked towards their respective instruments, one of them picking up the bass guitar, another slung the electric guitar over his shoulder, and the last one took the acoustic guitar from the stand. Meilan sat at the piano with a wireless microphone over her head, while Toph went to her drum kit while also putting on her earplugs.

"Toph, you ready?" called out Meilan, getting a thumbs-up from Toph. "Naruto-kun?" All three Naruto's had nodded in assent. Everything was ready!

{Play: "Hope for the Future" by Paul McCartney, from "Destiny"}

The Naruto with the acoustic guitar began the song with his own solo, joined shortly by Meilan at the piano. After a moment, she began to sing!

…

"_Some hope for the future, some wait for the call_

_to say that the days ahead will be the best of all"_

…

At this point, the Naruto's with the electric and bass guitars joined in with Toph to the sound of the heavier riffs.

…

"_We will build bridges, up to the sky_

_heavenly light surrounding you and I_

_From out of the darkness, our future will come_

_If we leave the past behind we'll fly beyond the sun_

_We'll be together sharing the load_

_Watching in wonder as our lives unfold_

_Hope for the future_

_It's coming soon enough_

_How much can we achieve?_

_Hope for the future_

_It will belong to us_

_If we believe_

_If we believe_

_Hope shines brightest in the dark where nothing's ever seen_

_Lighting undiscovered places no one's ever been_

_Some hope for the future, some wait for the call_

_To say that our destiny will be the best of all_

_And we will build bridges up to the sky_

_Heavenly light surrounding you and I_

_Hope shines brightest in the dark where nothing's ever seen_

_Lighting undiscovered places no one's ever been_

_Hope for the future_

_Hope for the future_

_Hope for the future"_

…

As soon as the song was finished, the crowd cheered─not because this was the heiress singing, but because this was honestly a superb performance. Three of the judges stood up! Only Kaoru Jimon remained seated…was he not impressed? "What a way to close the Festival!" shouted Houyi, as Naruto dispelled his bunshin while Toph and Meilan walked towards him, "I've heard a few bands thus far tonight, but none of them have performed as well as you have tonight! This was a really good act! You are a great band, you deserve to be in this show, the Elemental Nations will love you, and you are all star material! Well done!"

"If I may say something about your performance," said Miru B, causing the audience to look on in silence, "THAT WAS OFF THE CHAIN, I LOVE IT!" She screamed, while waving her open palms in front of her!

"This was actually a good performance, and your band actually has talent," began Hi-D, "I've got kids back home, and they are watching this festival now. And as soon as I get home, you're going to be all they're going to be talking about. I love you all!"

"You're all really very good," began Jimon, looking at the band, "and I'll have to agree that this is a really good way to close the festival tonight. Now I didn't get up because I think we've only seen the very beginning of something forming in the three of you tonight. I see potential in the three of you getting big…especially you, the only boy in the group. If you find the shinobi life is not as satisfying for you, I'll be waiting to take you under my wing."

The judges having said their piece, the crowd cheered. It was at this moment that Naruto felt his head being turned in one direction, and then Meilan pulled him in to do the unexpected, something that had whoops of approval, and maybe a few wolf-whistles: she planted a kiss on his lips! As soon as they broke the kiss, Naruto could not help but feel a chill shooting up his spine…

…

[Higurashi Arsenal…]

There was a tense air in the television room, and Hiten noted it was coming from Tenten and the twins. As far as he could tell, the performance was rather good, but what happened at the end must've put the three girls on edge. For a brief moment, he could even see that their eyes had taken on a nasty tinge of green.

"For heaven's sake! It was just a kiss!" chided Hiten, with an exasperated tone in his voice, "Besides, it's not like he's going to end up marrying her in the future!"

"So you didn't fall for the Baihe clan charm?" asked Mikoto, in feigned jealousy.

"Well, the majority of the Baihe clan are beautiful people in body and soul, so I won't lie to you and say that I haven't fallen for it," said Hiten, causing Mikoto to look away before he reached forward and pulled her to look into his eyes, "but when I met you, I soon found that it was love at first sight…and then I realized that you were the love of my life. I still love Mariko not just for bringing me out of my slump, and for giving me my little princess; I love Mariko for being Mariko, just like I love you for being you. Never forget that."

With that said, there were a few moments of awkward silence between Hiten and Mikoto while their daughters watched in stunned silence. It was then broken when Mikoto pulled Hiten in by his head before remembering who else was in the room. She turned to see the expectant looks of their daughters, with a look of amusement on their faces in place of their jealous looks. "Uh, girls, can we have some private time?"

"Sure thing," said Tenten playfully as the twins left the living room with smiles on their faces, "oh, and Mikoto-sama? Please make sure you bring Daddy back upstairs by midnight!"

As soon as Tenten left the living room, she heard the sounds of kissing, and could not help but to wish she had that with Naruto-kun; something she was pretty sure the twins wanted to do as well. Eh, what can she do? She'll just have to work harder to become strong to make her mother proud, and (to her embarrassment) impress Naruto.

…

[Hyūga Complex…]

Hinata left Hanabi-chan's room after tucking her into bed. She honestly wanted to be in that stage now, beating up that Baihe girl and then kissing Naruto-kun herself. The only problems were that they were very far away, and that the Baihe girl in question was an heiress as well. Knowing what she did about the Baihe clan from rumors, Hinata knew that fighting the girl in a contest of strength was suicide. This meant that she had to fight with speed and smarts in order to win Naruto-kun's heart as a strong fighter.

At the same time though, she looked to the Baihe girl as a sort of inspiration to get even stronger, and more confident. Considering how much competition the Hyūga clan's health spa had with the Baihe clan village, it was also a bit fitting that Hinata decided to take to learning to heal people as well as soothing their pains. Something she saw every bit as useful as fighting an enemy off to protect those she cared about; Hanabi-chan and Naruto-kun included.

So far, she'd shown to have the makings of a very capable masseuse, and her lessons in traditional medicine had given her enough knowledge to begin experimenting with making her own medicines in the form of a side-project; a cream that would accelerate the healing process on small wounds. She'd run into lot of hiccups trying to develop the cream, but Hinata felt that she was making progress.

"How are things, Hinata-_dono_?"asked a voice that Hinata most definitely didn't want to hear at the moment, the 'dono' being spat out in false respect.

"Just peachy, Neji-_nii_!" shot back Hinata, glaring at her older cousin. Ever since that day his father died, Neji had joined the majority of the Main House in their attempts at bullying her (even then, it was subtle, but she knew he was among the bullies). Now that she started fighting back, only the strongest of the bullies persisted in trying to knock her down, Neji included.

"That cursed boy you desire has been fated to be a failure since the day he was born," deadpanned Neji, "and with the Curse activated, his failure is more than guaranteed. I would advise that you ignore him."

"I'm in need of a sparring partner," said Hinata, almost snarling the words, "I might need to get in some exercise before I go back to sleep."

Thinking that he had this match in the bag, Neji nodded in assent…after all, that failure of an heiress would only be destined for failure in the future. He would soon learn why he should never underestimate the new Hinata…

…

[Baihe Village─the next day…]

After the festivities of last night, the village was on cleanup. A good number of people had gotten praise from the judges, which had promised that they were in the right direction, but only one act had made it and won the prize money of 100,000,000 ryo. The act that won the talent show was that DJ with the mouse-helmet…Naruto and Meilan's small band had made it to the second place. The judges were pretty fair with their decision; at least they didn't play favorites with Meilan and told it like it was. '_Still, it was fun while it lasted.'_ thought Naruto, as he and Meilan walked towards the gate with Huayin escorting them.

As soon as they got there, they found GSD and Yamato waiting for them. "I heard your performance in the festival last night," said GSD, with a sympathetic tone in his voice, "if it is any consolation, I liked your act better."

"I'll have to agree on that," added Yamato, "and I see that my lessons on the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu have been very useful to you, even in non-combat situations."

"Yeah, well, you're a pretty good teacher." chuckled Naruto, scratching the back of his head for the praise he'd just received.

"I suppose it's time to say good-bye," said Huayin, almost wishing her daughter didn't have to go.

"Not yet," interrupted GSD, "we're waiting for someone else."

Upon hearing that, everyone wondered exactly who GSD was talking about until someone landed on the ground nearby. Turning their attention to the disturbance, they found that it was Shizi, with Toph on his shoulder. "Are we late?"

"Not at all," answered GSD, waving his hand in noncommittal, "in fact, you're just in time. Are you ready for the trip, Ms. Beifong?"

Naruto's eyes had widened in surprise. "You're coming with us Toph?"

"Don't think this means anything!" she shouted, "I'm not following you guys along because I like either of you, it's just that following you lets me see the world! You two have a dream? Well so do I! And I can't achieve that dream here!"

Huayin giggled to herself as she witnessed Toph's antics. She was certain that the Beifong girl would be horrified to know that her skin had taken on a rosy color upon hearing Naruto speaking to her. It also stood to reason that she knew of what dream she spoke of, and Huayin was not surprised: in spite of the fact that Toph loved the family (as much as she would deny it), she was way too rebellious to be stay with the main branch. It was no surprise to Huayin that her destiny would be found in the Wei branch, and under Mulan's tutelage and employment.

When she saw that it was time to go, Huayin crouched to pull her daughter and Naruto into a hug. "Take care of each other on the road," she said, "and especially you Naruto-kun. I'm counting on you to protect my daughter."

"Don't worry about that, kā-san," replied Meilan, "we'll protect each other."

Touched by their bond, Huayin's response was to plant a kiss on both of their foreheads. Once she knew everything would be taken care of, she then turned her attention to Toph. "As for you, young lady, I want you to watch yourself. I may be the head of the clan, but your parents are annoying even to me," she said, eliciting a bit of laughter from Toph, "in all seriousness though, be careful."

All said and done, GSD, Yamato, Naruto, Meilan, and Toph all bowed respectfully to Huayin, who returned the bow before everyone turned to go their separate ways. As they walked on down the road, Naruto had a question on his mind: "So sensei, where are we going now?"

"We are going to Tetsu no Kuni," began GSD, "I have a friend there who will give you your first sword. But in the meantime, we're going to get serious with your sword training and your mastery over the Curse!"

His first proper sword? Now that was going to be interesting! And with that on mind, Naruto resolved to work hard to earn that sword!

…

_**A/N: **_

_**Soleneus: Hey people, It's Soleneus! I didn't to do much this time around, but I did help a little! Also, shameless self-plug here, read my stuff too! But totally review this story and favorite and follow!**_

_**Soleneus has left the Document! Kurogane7 takes the stage!**_

* * *

_**Kurogane: And with that, I shall begin work on the time-skip. As usual, I give credit to both Soleneus and UnitedOsprey1991 for this collaboration. To add something new, I have added a cameos section to make it clear who I decided to use in my chapters. **_

_**Also, in the event some of you don't check on my polls as often, regarding the Slayer class Naruto will start off as, here are the results:**_

_**Blademaster: 21 votes**_

_**Asura: 15 votes**_

_**Soul Bender: 9 votes**_

_**Berserker: 7 votes**_

_**I wonder…how will Naruto look as a Blademaster? You may suggest all you like for his appearance, but I have other elements to incorporate.**_

_**In any case, I'd like for everyone to give a round of applause to Soleneus and UnitedOsprey1991, and do review, would you kindly?**_

…

…

_**Vocabulary:**_

_**Yōjinbō─while it is more popularly spelled as 'yōjimbō' because of the Akira Kurosawa movie, and the "Usagi Yojimbo" comic series, this is how you properly say it in Japanese; the word simply means 'bodyguard'.**_

_**sandogasa─this is the Japanese sedge shade; it's normally used as a hands-free umbrella that is worn on your head. Normally has a conical shape, but it is sometimes cylindrical.**_

_**daishō─this is the traditional mounting of a katana and wakizashi that samurai are known to wear. The name itself means 'big-small'.**_

_**suburitō─a type of bokken with a widened blade; not usable in regular training due to its weight, but is a perfect tool for training strength and form.**_

…

_**Cameos:**_

_**Saitou Hajime─Rurouni Kenshin version, mentioned by Jin-e.**_

_**Lindsey Stirling─I like her work so much that she gets a mention as a performer that Mikoto particularly enjoys.**_

_**The Judges─it should be obvious, but I invented each of their names to correspond to a real-life judge on TV: Kaoru Jimon would be Simon Cowell; Sutarn Howa is Howard Stern; Miru B is Mel B; Hi-D Kurumu is Heidi Klum; and finally Mantou Houyi is Howie Mandell.**_

_**The DJ that Hinata was inspired by─DJ Deadmau5**_


	7. New Mission, New Weapons

_**A/N: And so begins the next arc. This is by far the longest chapter done in the story. Hopefully it's up to par. Do read and review would you kindly?**_

…

{Play: "Song of the Ancients~Devola" by Okabe Keiichi, from "Nier"}

[Hokage Tower, Konohagakure no Sato━two years later...]

Three years have passed since Naruto had been taken from the village for personal training, and things have been progressing well as far as the village was concerned. Businesses were booming, the shinobi patrollers were able to crack down on blossoming organized crime lords, and the newest batch of genin had just graduated from the academy. All in all, a lot of things happened while he was gone.

Aside from that, it was business as usual. Although rumor had spread throughout the village like wildfire as to the imminent return of Uzumaki Naruto; some took it to be a bad omen, others just looked forward to welcoming him with open arms. Sarutobi Hiruzen simply took it in stride, as he took a long drag of his pipe, savoring the flavor of the tobacco as he let out a puff of smoke. Although in all honesty, one would classify him as being part of the latter category rather than the former.

His grandfatherly concern for the boy was well-known amongst a good amount of the shinobi under his command. Hiruzen had promised Minato from beyond the grave that he would ensure that whether he be a shinobi or a civilian, Naruto would grow up to be a fine man. Given the schooling that Naruto had undoubtedly been on while traveling with the old man GSD, it was very likely that he was way past academy level…especially with Yamato assisting in training the boy. He could only hope that Naruto had chosen well for his path as a Slayer.

Today however, Naruto would be coming here to be recognized as a genin; but he would not be the only one to come to the village. The reports that Yamato had sent over in his direction had made it clear that Naruto was joined in his training trip by Beifong Toph and Baihe Meilan, both of whom were residents of the Baihe Clan Village. Ah, it was such a long time since he melted his troubles away in that place…the people there were friendly as long as you obeyed one simple rule while you stayed: bring your war to their village, and their doctors would be thanking you for donating your body to medicine.

He also remembered that two years ago, Meilan's mother Huayin had sent him a letter with the appropriate forms. Her missive, word-for-word on that day, went as follows:

"_Dear Hiruzen-dono,_

_How are you this fine day?_

_Are you still smoking like that chimney I thought of you as when I was a little girl, even though my mother, as your doctor, recommended that you quit?_

_All that aside, I am not sending this letter to you simply to check on your health for my mother's sake, but for several things I want to bring to your attention._

_Enclosed in this letter, you should find my daughter's citizenship papers; filled out and awaiting your approval. I'm very certain Konoha would be welcoming to a branch of the Baihe Clan being started in your humble village. Approve of this, and in exchange, I ask that you renew the deal that I am to tender with the other nations so that my nomadic clansmen can enter your borders and do business with little trouble for a good ten years._

_Hopefully, this matter will be resolved by the time my daughter arrives in Konohagakure with Uzumaki Naruto._

_Sincerely,_

_Baihe Huayin"_

Seeing the opportunity to earn another clan in the village, Hiruzen quickly approved of the arrangement. He only hoped that Huayin would not harp on him about his smoking in the future. It was bad enough that her mother did so while she was alive, and it'd be humiliating if he had to go through that again with her daughter.

Due to the amount of time she'd spent with Naruto, Baihe Meilan was technically part of a genin team with him. Beifong Toph on the other hand had no intention of staying permanently; in fact, she was only going to be a temporary resident, seeing as she wanted to move to Tanzaku City to join the other Wei clan members.

Gah! It was way too complicated a mess for him to clean up! Still, he had a job to do, and with the photos being sent up for the official dossiers, Naruto-kun would be coming here soon e…

The sound of the door knocking had brought Hiruzen out of his musings. Sure enough, in walked the secretary. "Hokage-sama, Yamato has returned with Naruto and the Baihe clan members. Shall I send them in?"

"Of course, send them in."

Hearing that, the secretary stepped aside, allowing Yamato to walk into the room with three other people. The first of whom being a young girl with her long hair tied up in a ponytail behind her back, wearing form-fitting clothing that had pads of light armor stitched into certain places being worn under a qipao cut in such a manner as to better facilitate freedom of movement and her hitai-ate worn around her neck. Holstered at her sides were a pair of what appeared to be bladed tonfa, ready to be unsheathed at a moment's notice. All in all, she evoked the image of Baihe Xianghua, only younger and with the apparent subtle addition of masculinity over a generation or two. This girl was no doubt Baihe Meilan, daughter of Baihe Huayin, granddaughter of Baihe Xianghua, and heiress of the Baihe clan.

Standing next to Meilan was a girl in green and cream-colored clothing with misty seafoam-colored eyes with a perpetual scowl on her face. She wore a green and yellow headband in her raven-colored hair, and carried herself like a tomboy. Hiruzen could only assume that this was the Beifong girl, as he'd heard that she always traveled barefoot.

And last but not least was a blond boy with whisker marks on his cheeks. Naruto had aged well, and he now wore an orange haori with navy blue triangles on the trim of the sleeves over grey hakama…a variation of the Shinsengumi uniform (fitting, given he studied in Tetsu no Kuni). He wore a sleeveless kimono under the haori, which had large, wide sleeves that hid his arms. At his sides under the haori, and mounted on a rack at each side was a set of three short blades, no doubt Tetsu no Kuni-style wakizashi. With the hitai-ate on his forehead, Naruto looked like an actual Shinsengumi officer ready for patrol. "Nice to see you again Jiji!" he said, in his usual jovial attitude.

"Naruto! Be respectful!" hissed Iruka, "He is your Hokage!"

"That's okay, Iruka," answered Hiruzen, waving away the momentary disrespect nonchalantly, "Naruto-kun is allowed to do so considering he's had to grow up alone." It was at this point that Hiruzen noticed that someone was missing. "Where is GSD?"

"Sensei said he had somewhere he needed to be," answered Naruto, truthfully, "we parted ways after that day in Takigakure, he but wished us luck."

"I see," said Hiruzen, going back on his memory. The day that the blond spoke of was in one of Yamato's more recent reports; on the way back to Konoha, the five of them had stopped in Takigakure, where they witnessed a dark-skinned girl being abused by a bunch of adults. Seeing as he hated bullies in any shape or form, Naruto of course stood up for her, managing to beat down the adults using one of his bokken, with Meilan and Toph joining in. After showing her some kindness, Naruto got to know the girl better, and learned her name was Fū, and soon realized that that she was being mistreated because she was a jinchūriki. A moment's deliberation was all that was needed for Naruto to reveal that he himself was a jinchūriki, and then he extended an offer to take her with them. She politely refused; saying that while she hated a good number of the people in the village, there were some who were actually nice to her from their hearts, and she was willing to bear the brunt of the abuse to protect them. Seeing that she had resolved to stay, Naruto gave her one of the swords in his collection, and an offer that if things became intolerable in her village, she was always welcome in his home in Konoha. The day they left Takigakure, Fū managed to pull Naruto aside to plant a kiss on his lips, before they finally left the village. "So, how did the training go?" he asked, genuinely curious as to what it was that Naruto had learned.

"Oh, it was awesome," began Naruto, enthusiastically going into the story, "I mean, while we were going to Tetsu no Kuni, GSD-sensei taught Meilan-chan a few tricks for her fighting style. Then it only got more awesome when he got me to think about how I wanted to control the demon…I told him I…"

"Time to die old man!" interrupted a voice running into the room, before its' owner tripped on its over-long scarf, throwing the wooden kunai in the Hokage's direction and embedding it into the wall next to his head. The owner of that voice was a young boy with an odd headgear on his head and a ponytail sticking out from behind. As soon as he got back up, nursing his front end, the boy turned to see the nearest person to him being Naruto. "You! You tripped me didn't you!?" he accused, pointing a finger at Naruto.

Naruto's response was to pick the boy up by the collar with his right hand, and glare into his eyes. "I didn't trip you! You tripped on that scarf of yours! Now who the hell are you?!"

Before he could respond, the door slid open and in walked a shinobi with sunglasses. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama, he…" The shinobi was about to say something before he noted that Naruto held the boy in his hand. "You brat! How dare you! Do you have any idea who you're roughhousing? You're holding the Hokage's grandson by his collar!"

A look of confusion had briefly appeared on Naruto's face as he inspected the boy's features. They were younger, and had a bit of baby-fat to it, but he could see the resemblance on his cocky little face. "What's the matter? You gonna pull your punches on me because of my grandpa?"

"I could care less if you were his grandma!" With that said, Naruto landed a punch on the boy's stomach; not enough to kill him, but enough to knock the wind out of him. The boy's last thoughts were '_this kid's different…'_

The shinobi was about to let out a sound of outrage when someone else ran into the room. "Hokage-sama! There's been a development in Team Seven's mission!" shouted the shinobi that had just entered the office, "The client lied about its difficulty! Now they're asking for reinforcements!"

This was actually very convenient, given the moment. "Naruto-kun, as of now, you and Baihe Meilan are both official genin of Konoha. Team Eleven will be activated under the command of Yamato on a temporary basis until you find an official third team member. Will you take this mission to reinforce Team Seven as your first assignment?"

"Sure thing," Naruto enthusiastically answered, "I've been dying to test out what I've learned so far under GSD-sensei!"

Meilan simply nodded in agreement. "Besides, I'm pretty sure they'll need a medic."

"Then it's agreed. You two will be reinforcing Team Seven for this mission; you'll be meeting at a ferry to the southwest of here, heading towards Nami no Kuni. Ichiro, send word to Team Seven that reinforcements are en route."

"Hey! What am I? Chopped liver?!" The blind girl voiced unhappily.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Beifong, but you are not an official shinobi, and thus cannot take part in this mission," said Hiruzen, with an apologetic sigh, "however, you can have a tour of the village. I'm assuming you want to stay in Naruto-kun's apartment?"

"Fine." Toph consented, crossing her arms.

"You think you'll be okay on your own Toph?" asked Naruto, with concern in his voice.

"No worries. Besides, I did say I wanted to see the world, why not see your village while I'm at it?" She replied, shrugging.

Not entirely satisfied with the answer, Naruto simply let out an exasperated sigh before turning his attention back to Hiruzen. "We'll reinforce Team Seven as soon as possible. See you later jiji!"

With that, Naruto, Yamato, and Meilan left the office, with Hiruzen just about to settle down with his pipe. "Honorable Grandson!" called out the voice of the shinobi assigned to train the boy. With a grunt of disappointment, Hiruzen simply sat back down and reclined in his seat…as far as he was concerned, the boy needed an experience like this.

…

[Somewhere on the road─hours later…]

"All right then, here's what's happening," began Yamato, as he walked down the road with Naruto and Meilan following, "Team Seven just saved the client from getting killed by the Oni Kyōdai, both of whom are chūnin-level shinobi formerly of Kirigakure no Sato, and are under the employ of Gato Shipping; we don't know who else Gato has paid off, which is why we're going to reinforce them. Right now, we're going to meet them at the coast, where a ferry is waiting…"

Before he could continue on, Yamato had paused when he noted that Naruto's attention was on something else. It was then that he noticed that they were being followed by a solid white cube that was off the field of their vision. Letting out an annoyed sigh while rolling his eyes, Naruto walked towards the cube, reached downward, and pulled out a nearly-frightened boy that he knew fairly well. After all, he did jab the boy in the stomach. "You again?!"

"Yeah! Me again!" taunted the boy with a conceited grin on his face.

"Honorable Grandson, I'm pretty sure you know that your grandfather's going to punish you for this!" chided Yamato, obviously disappointed in the shinobi that was supposed to be teaching him, "How did you get this far anyway?"

"I snuck by the guards as they were arguing." He was proud of that fact.

As he heard this, Yamato sighed and grabbed the bridge of his nose when he realized that the list of people he needed to pay a visit to had just increased by two more. "What're we going to do with him, sensei?" asked Meilan, "We're too far away to take him back now, and I'm pretty sure Team Seven is still waiting on those reinforcements."

"Why me?!" he asked himself, until he remembered something else! Come to think about it, what _**was**_ the boy doing here? "Why are you here anyway, Honorable Grandson?"

"Isn't it obvious? I want to you to train me to beat my Grandpa!"

Naruto shook his head. "Not my problem. You just put this mission in jeopardy because of your arrogance, and now we have two civilians to protect; both of whom are in really big trouble, and in two different ways."

The young boy gulped; it was more than obvious by his expression that he did not think of the consequences when he snuck out.

Meilan looked at Konohamaru, almost scolding him with her gaze. "If you can't even follow orders you don't deserve to be a ninja."

For a brief moment, the boy seemed to feel bad that Meilan decided to talk down to him; but just as suddenly as it had vanished, the boy's confidence had returned. He'd come too far to be rejected now! "Well tough luck! I'm not going back until I learn from someone who knows what they're doing. Ebisu-baka doesn't really teach me much. I want someone on the field to teach me how to be a ninja!"

Upon hearing that, Naruto took a good look into the boy's eyes. There was something in them that seemed to interest him; what it was, he couldn't put a finger on it. "I think we should bring him with us." he finally said.

That sentence had the effect of earning disbelieving stares from both Meilan and Yamato…the latter of whom broke the silence. "Are you insane? He's not going to last out in the real world, not as he is now!"

"What? It's like Meilan said, we're too far away to bring him back, and Team Seven really needs reinforcements!" exclaimed Naruto, "Besides, it kills two birds with one stone; he gets to learn new stuff, and maybe he can be useful."

Just as Yamato was about to make another argument against Konohamaru coming with, he'd had a brilliant idea; one that caused a sly grin to crease his face. Naruto was right, the boy could be useful; plus, the experience would also do several other things in his favor, one of which being that it'd put Naruto in his place. "Fine, but since you suggested it, he's your responsibility!"

Naruto had a proud grin on his face, shortly before it turned into a frown upon finally allowing the message to sink in. With a sigh, he put the boy down, and followed his team as they walked, Naruto watched as the young boy stood side-by-side with him. "What's your name anyway?"

"It's Konohamaru, like the village."

"Well, since we're in a hurry to meet Team Seven, I won't be able to teach you anything now, Konohamaru," began Naruto, "but as soon as we settle down, I'm going to teach you some stuff I learned while I was out of town. Deal?"

"Deal!"

…

{"Slinger's Song" by Darren Korb from "Bastion"}

[Meeting Place─two hours later…]

It was quiet, save for the subtle sounds of waves ebbing and flowing onto the pebble beach. Were it not for the tense atmosphere of waiting for some random assassin popping out of nowhere, it would've been a serene atmosphere to enjoy.

Beached on the shores of the waters separating Hi no Kuni from Nami no Kuni was a rowboat, with four people standing guard, and two other men. Judging by the way they carried themselves, the four guards made it obvious that they were all shinobi…well, three genin and their jonin commander. One of the kunoichi sat by the boat, sharpening a short katana with a whetstone, the rough sound of the stone grinding at steel broke the monotony of the ambient crashing of the waves.

She was a young girl in a dark blue shirt and off-white shorts. Her charcoal-colored hair was short, held up by her Konoha hitai-ate, and swept-back, giving her the appearance of a raptor; and her skin was pale from a growing up in the upper class of society, but it had gained a bit of a tan from being more active while living on a lower rung. This was Uchiha Setsuka, the elder of the Uchiha twins.

Standing nearby while watching over the client was another girl; in terms of body type, she had the same lean, wiry, and predatory appearance as Uchiha Setsuka…she was Uchiha Setsuna, the younger Uchiha twin. However, unlike Setsuka, her clothing was an inverse of her sister's in terms of color, with her hitai-ate being worn around her waist like a belt, and the appearance of thigh-length knee-socks; her bob-cut hair was short enough that were she to sweep it back, she'd be indistinguishable from her elder sister should they wear identical clothes. At her sides were a pair of wakizashi that were hand-made to be up to Tetsu no Kuni standards.

The last kunoichi had pink hair and green eyes, and it was clear that she grew up in a higher rung of society given the quality of her red qipao. The way she carried herself in her appearance made it clear that she was from a civilian family, and her large forehead was a hallmark of her appearance that also symbolized her intelligence. Haruno Sakura was, by her own admission, a fangirl for the Uchiha Twins…and thankfully for the twins, her fangirl infection went to the point of idol-worship (had it been any worse, she would've attempted to take them both in bed, regardless of being the same gender). Both girls were, in her eyes, the prettiest, strongest, and smartest; it was no wonder that the Uchiha Twins were tied for Rookie of the Year…and she was glad to be seconded only by them.

Reading an infamous orange book nearby was a silver haired, masked man with a hitai-ate covering his right eye; the leader of Team Seven. He wore the standard fare for jōnin-level shinobi: a green flak jacket over indigo clothing. He was giggling in perverted glee as he read what was very likely an erotic novel. Unfortunately, Hatake Kakashi's behavior at the moment was really irritating all of his students, who were apparently plotting to castrate him for reading that in front of them. However, they all knew enough not to be fooled by his giggling; he didn't become a jōnin for nothing after all, which was a lesson they had learned the hard way.

Their client was an old man that seemed to find the company of the bottle far more entertaining than his bodyguards; especially so, given how much he'd lied to them. The mission that Tazuna had hired Team Seven for was a C-ranked job, but the appearance the Oni Kyōdai made it clear that the threat was B-level at the very least. Seeing as they had come too far to turn back now, and given how desperate Tazuna seemed when he practically pleaded with the shinobi team to come along and help. Kakashi had then made it clear that they would do the mission; but he would be owing Konohagakure no Sato interest, because they were going to bring in backup.

"How long until they get here nee-chan?" asked Setsuna, fingering the hilts of her wakizashi as she tried desperately to not murder their sensei. The last time she tried to do so on the bell test, Setsuna wound up having her anal virginity stolen; something that she still felt bitter about. One way or another, she was going to get revenge for that…and the prankster in her contemplated ways of punishing Kakashi for poking her in the ass!

"It depends on roadside conditions," answered Setsuka, without taking her attention from sharpening her katana, "aren't you more curious about who it is that's coming to back us up?"

"I know but…"

"They're here," interrupted Kakashi, without taking his attention away from his dirty novel, "and just in time, too."

True to his word, three figures walked out from beyond the treeline. One of them was a shinobi with a full-faced hitai-ate with a t-shaped visor, and two kids that looked like his genin team. The only one in that group that was part of the team was a young boy without a hitai-ate. "Yamato," called out Kakashi, without taking his gaze off his book, "it's been a while."

Letting out a sigh of amusement, the shinobi known as Yamato simply grinned in a friendly manner. "Looks like you haven't changed one bit, senpai."

Upon seeing who else was in the area, Tazuna could only grumble. "Great, he sends for more help and now he gets us more kids."

"Setsuna-chan? Setsuka-chan?" asked a very familiar voice.

The twins were gobsmacked as to who else it was that came along. "Naruto-kun?"

There was nothing much said between them; that is, after letting it sink in that he was speaking to the twins he knew from his childhood, Naruto happily ran towards them to embrace them both. "It's been such a long time!"

"You're part of the team that's come to reinforce us?" asked Setsuka, finally breaking the hug to look at Naruto.

"Yeah, I didn't think either of you would need help either," said Naruto, "you two were good at everything, especially when you worked together."

"It wasn't exactly our idea," pointed out Setsuna, "Kakashi-sensei was the one who thought that we might need backup."

Naruto turned his attention to the jōnin reading the porn novel. Something about him seemed familiar, but he just couldn't put his finger on it…

"If we're done with the reunions, can we get the hell out of here?" asked the boatman in annoyance, "Gato could already have people on this side of the shore, and I'd rather not risk it."

…

[Elsewhere…]

In a hidden base somewhere in Nami no Kuni, a man reclined on a couch, listening in on what his employer was saying with extreme disinterest. He wore bandages that went up from his neck to the lower portion of his face, and was bare-chested. His short hair was held up by his Kirigakure no Sato hitai-ate, and he wore tied urban camouflage pants. The way he carried himself spoke of years of training and experience on the field, and his eyes held a wish to murder the man before him for even daring to talk down to him like this.

Thankfully, the short man had taken a break from his shouting to turn his amused attention to watching one of his yōjinbo beat a man senseless for speaking out of turn…and correcting his boss on such a small thing as a number. Unfortunately, once the samurai was done with his beating, a single nod was enough to tell him to bring out his sword and slit the poor man's throat. He then turned his attention back to the shinobi. "…as I was saying Zabuza, your contractors weren't worth shit. What're you going to do now that they've been captured by Konoha shinobi? If this matter…"

Before the little man could continue with his words, he watched as the man now known as Zabuza swung a large sword around in such a manner as to point the tip of the blade at his employer. "Shut-up Gato, I'll handle the Konoha Shinobi at my own pace. And I give you my word, they are all going to fall to my blade, Kubikiribocho."

If he were disturbed at all by the momentary act of rebellion displayed by his worker, Gato did not show it. With an indignant grunt, Gato spoke. "We'll see about that." With the turn of his head, the two yōjinbo had turned and left with their boss.

Once he'd sensed that his employer was out of earshot, Zabuza put the greatsword away. "You can come out now, Haku."

Out from the shadows walked a young girl. Her midnight black hair had been collected into a bun on the back of her head, and she had a slim frame with a moderately small bustline. The pink kimono she wore showed off legs like a gazelle's: long and powerful enough to propel her through the air if need be. Overall, she painted the picture of the infamous Yuki-onna that led lost men to their deaths in blizzards. "Are you sure we can trust him, Zabuza-sama?"

"It can't be helped," sighed Zabuza, "that bitch Mei sent us here to earn money. And in all honesty, I really want to kill him and then rob his arrogant ass."

"Well I don't think it would be a good idea to do so yet. It'd affect our reputation if we killed off clients in the middle of a job like that."

"Ah, the story of my life," grumbled Zabuza, before deciding the change the subject, "so, you think you'll be ready for meeting the Konoha shinobi?"

"I will be in a moment," replied Haku, walking towards a partition, "I still need to get my disguise on after all."

…

[En route to Nami no Kuni─hours later…]

The route to Nami no Kuni was rather quiet. Save for the water gently rocking the boat, and the oar breaking through its surface, nobody said a word. Deciding to break the silence, Kakashi decided to speak up. "So, what made you think it was a good idea to lie to a shinobi team about the difficulty of a mission?"

With a contrite sigh, it was very clear to everyone that Tazuna knew he just couldn't keep it to himself anymore. Plus, he had all these kids that needed to know what they were getting themselves into; he at least owed them that much for lying to them. "Any of you hear of Gato?"

"The CEO of Gato Shipping?" asked Yamato, with Tazuna nodding in confirmation, "I've heard of him. That man was known for a lot of questionable business practices; and I use the terms 'man' and 'questionable' _**very**_ lightly."

"Well, he's set up shop over in Nami no Kuni," began Tazuna, "ever since he's come to our community, he's been nothing but trouble. He came in one day, whispering sweet promises of opportunities in our ears. Unfortunately, he was the only one to benefit from those opportunities, because as soon as he came into the island, he started buying out a lot of businesses; and what he couldn't buy out, he threatened or destroyed, and he's also imposed a shipping tax for all goods that come to the island."

As they listened in, the passengers on the boat could not help but feel bad for Tazuna's plight. "At this rate, if he keeps on doing what he's doing, we're not going to survive for much longer. He's planning to make conditions back home so bad, that he could then buy the island for dirt cheap to start a criminal empire."

"What made you such a threat to him that he'd hire two chūnin to kill you?" asked Setsuka, sincerely curious as to what the old man got himself into.

"I'm in the process of building a bridge that'll connect Nami no Kuni to Hi no Kuni," explained Tazuna, "with that bridge, we won't need to rely on Gato's merchant ships for our livelihoods. He also knows that if he does something like destroy the bridge while it's in construction, it'll draw so much attention that not even the Shinobi Nations would be ignoring the situation on Nami no Kuni for much longer─but if he kills me, the project dies; something I just can't afford to happen…not at this stage."

Upon hearing that, everyone on the boat could not help but admire the old man for his bravery and tenacity. To risk his life to bring hope to his people, now that was something even Konohamaru could understand. "And besides, it'll also be bad on you shinobi, because if you let me die, my grandson will file a complaint to your Hokage, and the entire world that Konoha Shinobi are no good for letting his precious grandfather die."

Before they could let out a word of annoyance, a loud 'crunch' was heard as the boat made it to the beach. "We're here," said the boatman, "I want y'all to be careful now. I don't know if Gato's got his thugs waiting for you, so be on your guard." At this point, he then turned his attention back to Tazuna. "That goes for you too. We're all counting on you to finish that bridge. We've had too many tragedies in this town."

"I will," answered Tazuna, "you take care of yourself now, Daiki."

With a bow, the boatman named Daiki turned the boat around and began rowing away. At this point, Naruto had knelt down while pulling a scroll out from the small of his back under the haori, and unfurled it on the ground. "What are you doing, Naruto?" asked Kakashi, genuinely curious as to what he was doing as Naruto pulled out one of the wakizashi from its sheath with his left hand, revealing a gloved hand that was attached to a white arm with a large shackle on his wrist.

"Keeping a promise," he cryptically said, before pricking his palm with the tip of his wakizashi. Naruto then swept his bloody palm across one particular line, causing an explosion of smoke to be emitted from the scroll. When the smoke cleared, a peculiar object was found lying on top of the open scroll.

"What's that, boss?" asked an awestruck Konohamaru.

"A gift from a friend in Tetsu no Kuni." said Naruto, regarding the object he'd just unsealed; it was large, had a long grip with a guard in front, and looked to be high-tech. It looked like a massive sword, with a bone shaft, a bone blade braced onto a special mechanism that was in a slit cut into the bone shaft and set near the hilt, and on the back of the shaft was a steel blade pointing away from the bone blade's axe-like edge. Also near the hilt and on the opposite side of the bone blade was a small, cylindrical glass container filled with a glowing liquid.

"Are you sure you want to bring that thing out now, Naruto-kun?" asked Meilan, "Because I'm not sure now is a good time."

"Hey, I had a deal with Sayaka-chan," Naruto pointed out, "she said that I could keep her clan's prototype weapons for free under the condition that I send field data back to her."

"You're going into battle with a prototype?" asked a skeptical Kakashi.

"It was too good a deal to refuse!" defended Naruto, as he swung the obviously-retracted weapon around to hold it against his shoulder. "Besides, I already have a pretty good handle on this weapon, all I need to do now is test it out on human-sized targets. Apparently, it's meant to deal with all those big-ass monsters out in the world."

Kakashi knew that Naruto was telling the truth; in his long career as a shinobi,he'd run into his fair share of monsters in nature; from Jaggi packs that were a menace in large numbers, to the almighty king of the skies, Rathalos. Once, he even remembered seeing some kind of giant sea creature crackling with electricity while he was on a mission near the shores of Mizu no Kuni. All in all, there were many creatures so big that they inspired both awe and fear from him; it was a good thing that chakra gave humanity a fighting chance against these natural monsters. He was also thankful that every nation had a Shinobi Monster Hunter corps out and about, hunting and killing these creatures without (in their words) disturbing the balance of nature. "Hopefully, we won't have to deal with those kinds of monsters."

"Never hurts to be prepared." Naruto said as the two teams carefully headed towards Tazuna's house.

An hour later as the two teams walked through a clearing, escorting the client through the forest, Naruto heard the sound of a twig snap, before he reached into his sleeve with his free hand, and tossed a kunai into the bushes. The sound of a loud 'thunk' was confirmation that he hit something. "What the hell was that?!" shouted a very angry Sakura.

"I thought I heard something in those bushes." he tersely said, without taking his attention away from the area he'd thrown the kunai. A rabbit came out which caused the Uchiha twins and Meilian to coo at it; Meilan however noted that the rabbit was trembling in fear.

Sakura turned to Naruto. "WHAT THE HELL NARUTO-BAKA! YOU ALMOST KILLED A HARMLESS BUNNY!"

Truly horrified of what he'd almost done, Naruto ran up to Meilan, and awkwardly helped her to comfort the frightened rabbit with his left hand…much to the disgust of Konohamaru. Kakashi and Yamato on the other hand, had a very skeptical look on their faces; that rabbit had white fur...something was off with that picture.

Naruto picked up the rabbit and gently petted it, but turned to notice Konohamaru looking disgusted at him. "What?"

The young boy snapped. "Don't 'what' me! You nearly killed that rabbit and now you're making nice with him?"

Meilian growled. "Well what kind of heartless monster would try to kill an innocent little rabbit?"

Before Konohamaru could retort Naruto picked up the sound of something whipping around in the air. "Everybody duck!" yelled out Kakashi, causing everyone to hit the dirt, where they saw a large blade spinning over them before it struck the trunk of a tree. Not long after, someone performed a shunshin and appeared, standing on the blade, glaring down at everyone the ground. "Feh! No wonder the Oni Kyōdai failed; they were up against the infamous Kopi Ninja Kakashi."

"Momochi Zabuza," growled Kakashi, continuing to glare back up at Zabuza, "the Kirigakure no Kijin."

The man named Zabuza let out a grunt of amusement. It was at this moment that Naruto chose to prepare his weapon for combat. With a twist of the handle, Naruto swung the weapon forward, and the bone axe-head shifted positions in such a manner that it was on the opposite side of the steel blade to turn it into a proper battle-axe. He then shifted into a fighting stance with the other shinobi. "Interesting weapon you got there, Gaki," noted Zabuza, genuinely interested in the weapon, "where'd you get it?"

Naruto smirked. "Oh nowhere special, just a gift from the Saika clan."

Upon hearing that, Zabuza widened his eyes in disbelief. "You have a weapon from the Saika clan? Don't make me laugh! The Saika clan makes really high-tech shit for those armor-headed nutjobs in Tetsu no Kuni, and they don't part with their weapon designs so easily!"

Meiling growled. "Please, don't bring that clan up, I've heard enough from that sailor-mouthed hussy they call an heiress to last a lifetime!"

Hearing exactly who the gift was from, Kakashi could not help but be surprised. The Saika clan was a clan of engineers and inventors that resided in Tetsu no Kuni. They were known for their close ties with the samurai, and being one of the few clans that exclusively used a weapon called a 'firearm'. Every clan member built one of these weapons, and they also built intricate crossbows that were very advanced. The head of the Saika clan always took on the name of the clan founder 'Magoichi' as a title of honor.

To hear that this weapon that Naruto was using was a prototype designed by the Saika clan, Kakashi supposed he must've been trusted well enough by the clan to have been given such a weird-looking weapon. As Zabuza said, the Saika clan never parted with their weapon designs easily─in fact, he'd once heard that that war hawk Danzo sent some of his ROOT agents to steal some of those schematics; they never came back. He also remembered that the axe that Naruto was currently using was a gift given to him free of charge, so long as he sent combat data back to the clan. Of course he'd heard the rumors that the samurai were trying to modernize their arsenal.

"Ha! I'd like to see that thing in action!"

At that point, Zabuza's attack began when he gripped the hilt of Kubikiribocho, and used his entire weight to pull the blade out of the tree, before leaping off and landing on the water, quickly performing a series of hand-seals. "Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu."

"Konohamaru, stay with the client!" Kakashi slid the hitai-ate over his eye upward to reveal a Sharingan underneath it. "Yamato, you're with me. Everyone else, Manji formation!"

At his command, Konohamaru ran to stay with the client; someone needed to watch over him after all. Meanwhile, the five genin formed a tight five-point star while brandishing their respective weapons: Setsuka had her katana drawn and ready in a two-handed grip; Setsuna and Sakura had their weapons drawn, the former having both of her wakizashi out in reverse grips while the latter brandished a kunai; Naruto held his axe at the ready to bring its blade down on Zabuza should he come near; and Meilan had her bladed tonfa ready with their long blades out to extend the reach of her punches. Knowing how tough a man of Momochi Zabuza's reputation would be, Yamato had taken up a position near Kakashi, ready to support his superior officer; and just in time too, because by the time Zabuza had finished his jutsu, the mist in the surrounding area had started to thicken, obscuring everyone's vision with a highly opaque mist that swirled hauntingly before their eyes.

"Everyone, be on your guard," warned Yamato, keeping his eyes out through the fog, "if what I remember hearing from the rumors is correct, then this man is known for being a master of the Silent Killing technique…there are stories of shinobi who have died at his hands with their features locked in silent screams."

The sound of sinister laughter had filled the air from all directions, putting everyone on edge. This was not a good situation; the person they were fighting was in essence, the perfect assassin. This meant that they had to be extra careful lest he slip through their defenses. "Eight points!" said Zabuza through the mist. The cold tone of his voice suddenly speaking out was enough to bring the tension up. "Heart, lung, spleen, liver, stomach, jugular vein, subclavian artery, larynx. Eight points, which means eight kill-zones. I wonder which one I'll be going after now!"

It was just getting worse. As if Zabuza and his threatening words weren't bad enough, they had to feel his killing intent. They could feel his intent to kill them all, but neither Kakashi nor Yamato seemed to pay it much heed. The same could not be said of the genin under their watch…Konohamaru had long since fainted from the bloodthirsty battle-aura Zabuza produced like a poisonous wave.

"Setsuka, Setsuna, Sakura!" called out Kakashi, getting their attention, "Calm down! I'll protect you all with my life." He then turned to regard them with his infamous eye-smile.

Yamato looked at his two charges and had to let out a smile smile. They were sweating, but even though they were shaken, both were holding up well.

"You say that now Kakashi, but let's see what they do when you and your partner are both headless corpses!" taunted Zabuza, pulling back the huge blade and bringing it down on Kakashi. It connected, but Kakashi splashed as if he were made of water. He learned too late that it was a trap, as his partner Yamato counterattacked with roots that shot out of the ground and impaled him through several vital organs. Yamato was about to grin victoriously until he noted that Zabuza seemed rather gleeful about being killed; he then saw why as he was bisected from behind.

{Play: "Gogumajiosu Theme" from "Monster Hunter 4"}

Zabuza's victory was short-lived, as he then noted that the Yamato he'd just killed was just a wooden statue. It wasn't long until both Kakashi and Yamato moved in to stab Zabuza simultaneously; Kakashi with a kunai to the larynx from behind, and Yamato from the side with a sharpened wooden spear up under his ribs through his heart and lungs...unfortunately, their prey had splashed away into water. With that done, both Kakashi and Yamato stood at the ready, prepared to mount another counterattack. "Not bad, I didn't think I'd run into a Mokuton user." It was clear to both that he planned to change targets, but where would he be going? "As for you Kakashi, I guess the rumors are true; you do have a Sharingan."

Upon hearing that last word from Zabuza, both Setsuka and Setsuna had come to listen far more carefully; how could Kakashi have a Sharingan? Was there an Uchiha somewhere in his family tree, and it gave him some kind of mutation? "A gift from a friend, much like Naruto's axe," responded Kakashi, hoping to get a better idea as to where he was, "unfortunately for me, it was his last gift."

Zabuza chuckled. "I see. You didn't get the Sharingan, you essentially stole it from a dead Uchiha. You're nothing but a thief. Speaking of the boy, I wonder…would you mind if I go ahead and 'axe' him something?"

"What the hell do you want, teme?" shouted Naruto, keeping his guard up.

"Do you think that fancy-ass axe is going to save you?"

Naruto grinned, tightening the grip on his axe. "Let's find out."

"Then bring it on brat!" said Zabuza, his voice very clear…and right behind Naruto!

Zabuza stabbed Naruto in the back with a kunai only to watch as the boy exploded in a puff of smoke, surprising the nuke-nin with the fact that he'd just killed a Kage Bunshin. He was then able to turn around fast enough to block with his massive blade as Naruto had appeared behind him, bringing the head of his axe downward. Zabuza tried to bring the sword up to block, only to be caught by the downwards point of the axe-head and grappling with the boy. He then heard Naruto chuckling sinisterly. "And what's so funny, gaki?"

"Because you're an idiot if you think this is just an axe!" Upon giving the hilt a full twist, the axe-head let out a pneumatic hiss as it started moving downwards rapidly, pulling the Kubikiribocho downward. However, what really surprised Zabuza was the fact that as the bone axe head was shifting downwards and digging his blade into the ground, the steel blade had pulled upwards, turned, and then shifted downward to lock in place as it was stacked on top of the axe-head, and the boy's hand on the back of the weapon; turning the axe into a full-blown sword as he gave the weapon a good push that cut deep into his shoulder! Unfortunately, this Zabuza turned out to be yet another Mizu Bunshin, while another one was intercepted by Meilan and Setsuka slicing it into thirds.

Zabuza growled, his voice taking on its atmospheric quality yet again. "You brats! What the hell do they teach you nowadays? I thought Konoha got lax in its training!"

"If that's your best, then you'd better try harder if you want to fight a Baihe clan member!" challenged Meilan.

Zabuza jumped out onto the water and started going through hand-seals at a rapid rate...seeing that he was going to have an advantage while he's near water, Kakashi and Yamato moved in quickly to try and knock him out of the pond only to watch as he dissolved into the water. "Where is he?" asked Kakashi, still cautious of the area around him.

"Senpai, don't you think the water is getting heavier?"

As Kakashi looked down he did in fact notice something odd. The second he realized what was up, a sphere of water had engulfed both Yamato and Kakashi separately, with Zabuza and a Mizu Bunshin each holding a hand out to a sphere. "Now this makes things easier." taunted Zabuza, "and now to deal with your brats."

Seeing as both the Mizu Bunshin and Zabuza were standing right next to each other, they both used their free hands to form hand seals to make another Mizu Bunshin. "Everybody! Take Tazuna and run! None of you are a match for a shinobi of his level!" Kakashi called out.

{Play: "Caffeine" by Jeff Williams from "RWBY"}

Naruto rubbed his nose. "You think I'm leaving this fight? You're insane, Kakashi-san! Meilan let's go! Same stakes?"

"Yeah, I believe its my turn to win a bet Naruto-kun." Meilan said which got the Uchiha twins to bristle at the tone used; it was as though the two of them were dating. "Don't think I've forgotten what you did when we fought in that arena a while ago."

"You're not going to let me live it down are you?" asked Naruto, remembering exactly what it was he did then.

"Hey! What about us?!" interrupted an indignant Setsuna, "We can pull our own weight!"

"And besides, this is our fight too," finished Setsuka, "that bastard's got both of our senseis."

"Looks like our little dance has turned into a promenade hasn't it, Naruto-kun?" asked Meilan, feeling a bit of a challenge rising up.

"I guess it has", he said, while turning his attention to the Uchiha twins. "First team to free their sensei is treated by the losers to dinner. You game?"

"Of course!" responded Setsuka, "We're going to win that bet!" finished a pumped-up Setsuna.

With that said, both of Team Seven and Eleven's best fighters had charged in to deal with the Mizu-Bunshin: Naruto nodded to Meilan, who nodded back in response before he moved faster to intercept the Mizu-Bunshin, the two of them locked in a duel with massive swords. When it noticed that three girls had passed him over, the Mizu Bunshin tried to break it off only to have no luck doing so. "Business before pleasure asshole! You wanna chase after girls, you gotta finish off with me first!"

The growl from the Mizu Bunshin had already made it clear what Zabuza thought of the matter. "I'll make sure that you dine in hell after this, gaki!"

As Naruto was dueling with the Mizu Bunshin, Zabuza and his Mizu Bunshin created two more Mizu Bunshin to intercept the girls moving in on the attack. One of them moved in to intercept the Uchiha twins, while the other had splashed back into water upon Meilan landing a very solid hit on its face before leaping away from another Mizu Bunshin being formed in the water and getting surrounded by more of them.

Setsuka and Setsuna on the other hand were working side-by-side to catch their Mizu Bunshin off-guard. Setsuka's katana was being used to slash away at the dodging opponent, while Setsuna was looking for an opportunity to throw a wakizashi at the real target: the Zabuza holding Kakashi in the water-bubble.

Meilan on the other hand, spent time fighting off every Mizu Bunshin that was summoned; a punch here, a kick there, even a few swipes when she spun her tonfa blades around to bring the longer blade out to bear. Not a single movement was wasted, and her knowledge on the Mizu Bunshin told her that each clone had about 10% of the creator's power; this meant that she had to kill each clone as quickly as possible without wasting too much energy so that she could really land a beat-down on the original.

Naruto managed to quickly end his battle with a feint, and bringing the blade up to cut his opponent from the bottom of his ribcage all the way up to the opposite shoulder. Once he saw the water clone burst into a splash of water, he moved in to join Meilan by mowing down several of the clones she was fighting.

The end of the battle seemed near as Zabuza had to stop making the water clones in order to maintain the Water Prison. It wasn't a draining jutsu to activate but to hold two of them was like running at the speed of sound; it showed how much the Demon of the Mist had in terms of chakra capacity. However, seeing the opportunity to begin their counterattack, Setsuka held the Mizu Bunshin before her by rolling away from his overhead slash, running up the blade, and slashing its throat while Setsuna ran up behind her sister, and used her back as an extra springboard to leap higher, and throw one of her blades at the Zabuza holding Kakashi hostage. That Zabuza caught the wakizashi by the handle, and seemed to have a grin underneath his bandages as he soon used the short blade in a reverse-grip to stop the younger Uchiha twin from cutting down on his face. "You've got to do better than that!"

Setsuna simply grunted in amusement. However, it was too late, as Zabuza soon noticed that the other Uchiha twin was moving in for a horizontal slash that was about to bisect him in one go. Seeing as he had no other choice, he then moved in to successfully land a kick that knocked the wind out of Setsuka only to watch as Setsuna used the momentum of the swing to turn around in an attempt to dismember him. Before Zabuza could bring up his sword to block, he was kicked in the head and was forced back. At the same time, he watched as Naruto and Meilan worked together to burst the other bubble, and dispel his remaining Mizu Bunshin.

"Damn you brats." Zabuza snarled. But then he felt a kunai on his throat, and tree roots growing around him with tendrils ready to spear through him in all directions like an Iron Maiden.

{Play: "Die" by Jeff Williams from "RWBY"}

"Great job girls and Naruto. I can take it from here." Kakashi said with his Sharingan blazing.

"I'd recommend standing back," added Yamato, his hands out in front of him and ready to kill Zabuza if necessary, "Kakashi-senpai and I can handle this! Stay back with the client!"

Nodding in agreement, Naruto, Meilan, Setsuka, and Setsuna all ran back to protect the client and Konohamaru. Just as they were able to do that, Zabuza shifted his own throat down on the edge of the kunai, and splashed into water, before revealing he was in an area further away from Yamato and Kakashi. "You pieces of shit have made me drag this fight on longer than necessary!" he roared, before flying through hand-seals at a high speed. Kakashi mimicked those hand-seals with no problem, causing both to use the same jutsu at the same time.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!"

Once the hand seals were done, two water dragons formed from the surrounding water before crashing into each other with thunderous force. It was then that both Zabuza and Kakashi began flying through numerous hand-seals. As Zabuza was beginning to figure out why it was that Kakashi was able to keep up with his seal work, he felt something entwining around his feet to interrupt his jutsu; as he tried to free himself from the roots, he saw, to his horror, that Kakashi stood with one hand in front of him, and the other was held above his head. The bastard had finished the exact same jutsu he was about to use!

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!"

A swirl of water appeared behind Kakashi before it grew larger and hit him with the force of a tsunami! As he was being pulled around by the force of the miniature waterfall, he felt the roots that held him to the ground eventually give away, and he was tossed about by the strength of the current that hit him; hitting trees, getting scratched by rocks, and then finally stopping as his back hit a really strong and old tree. As the water-level fell, Zabuza started sliding down the length of the tree; by the time he was able to breathe again, he roared in pain as he felt two kunai piercing his shoulders.

Seeing that their assailant had been taken down, the two teams had walked on up to Zabuza. Who would've thought that he'd be taken down by two jōnin and their genin teams? "Momochi Zabuza, for your attempt on the Mizukage's life, and various other crimes, you are hereby sentenced to death," declared Kakashi, "any last words?"

"Yeah, I have three: Go fuck yourself!"

With a bit of a snarl, Kakashi drew a kunai, and was about to bring it down when he saw senbon piercing Zabuza in the neck, thereby killing the man. Out of nowhere, an ANBU agent had appeared…the mask was faceless, save for a red swirl that was on the lower corner and the eye slits, but the crest on the forehead made it clear that this shinobi was from Kirigakure no Sato. "I'd like to thank you for your hand in apprehending the criminal Momochi Zabuza. I've been hunting him for a long time."

Kakashi walked over to Zabuza's body and checked his pulse. "Well he seems dead. Thank you Hunter-san."

"I can see that," she said, (she, for the contours under the clothing revealed her as such), "still, I have to bring his body back to the Mizukage." The Kirigakure Hunter-nin then knelt down and hefted Zabuza over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. "I hope we work together again."

With that said and done, the operative leaped away with Zabuza's limp corpse over her shoulder. The client was safe, the Honorable Grandson and Haruno Sakura had their firsthand look at what actual combat was, and the teams had done well overall. All in all, Naruto could call it a win!

However, his victorious thoughts were broken when he heard the sound of something falling to the ground. "Kakashi-sensei!" came the voice of Sakura, running to the unconscious shinobi.

"Stand back! I'm going to diagnose him!" said Meilan, walking towards Kakashi with a serious look on her face. As soon as she stood over him, she flipped him over and started feeling his wrist for a pulse, before moving her inspection to his throat. Her hand then glowed a golden light as she began to wave it around his body. She soon let out a sigh of relief as she turned to the remainder of Team Seven. "It's okay, he's suffering from chakra exhaustion. He'll live, but he'll be out of action for a bit."

…

[Elsewhere...]

As Haku set Zabuza down onto a branch, and she began pulling the kunai and senbon out of him. She needed to do this, or else she'd risk killing Zabuza-sama for real, and in transit. With one last look at the teams that challenged her master, she began to wonder exactly what it was that she and Zabuza-sama had gotten themselves into.

Shifting her attention back to Zabuza, Haku checked to make sure everything that was stuck into him was pulled out before bandaging the man. It was a quick-fix, sure, but it was better than nothing. She took stock of all his injuries, and began to think of what she'd need to treat him. She saw cuts from getting sliced up by a few sharp rocks, bruises from getting hit against trees, and she was pretty sure he was also suffering from broken bones. All in all, not a pleasant picture, but one she was used to whenever Zabuza-sama fought someone at least on the level of one of his colleagues. Not a big deal; she'd treated worse after all.

Using the bandages to wrap up her patient, Haku hefted Zabuza back over her shoulder and began to hop on the branches…she moved more slowly so as to not exacerbate his wounds. She did, after all, have much to tell him about this battle to make sure he had better chances of winning.

…

[Somewhere in Nami no Kuni─an hour later…]

"We're here," said Tazuna, walking up to the door. It'd been an hour since he'd led the two shinobi teams and their…tourist from the battlefield. Yamato had his superior officer hefted over his shoulder in a fireman carry; it was fortunate that while he was drained from the battle, he still had enough energy to transport Kakashi. This left everyone else to guard Tazuna and Konohamaru (who was angry with himself for fainting during a battle), and Naruto had his axe-sword (which he'd termed a 'switch-axe') at the ready in its axe form to serve as the group's heavy-hitter in the event any of Nami no Kuni's local fauna included large monsters like the horned primates known as Rajang (to which Tazuna assured was not on the list, as Nami no Kuni's small size made larger creatures harder to find).

Three knocks on the door in a particular pattern by Tazuna caused it to open, revealing a beautiful middle-aged woman at the door. "Tou-san!" she cried happily, and was about to hug Tazuna until she spotted the other people that came with her father, "Are these the shinobi you've hired?"

"Yeah," he said, while letting the shinobi in, "they don't look like much, but looks can fool ya."  
Everyone walked in, but Naruto had to lower his switch-axe before walking in and twisting the grip so that the axe-blade retracted, much to the surprise of the woman. Once everyone was inside, Naruto pulled his scroll out, opened it on the floor, and laid the switch-axe on it, sealing it back into the scroll with a loud 'poof'.

In the meantime, Yamato laid Kakashi down on the couch before deciding to take in the sights. It was a very modest interior, with stairs leading to a second floor up top. He could even make out the tiles that led to a kitchen. There was an entertainment center propped up against the wall, but the scratches on its surface made it obvious that there was supposed to be a television set in the large shelf…something that Tazuna seemed to grumble in an annoyed tone over seeing, although Yamato was pretty sure he said something like "Great, there goes my sports channel!" under his voice.

"Ojii-san!" called out the voice of a little boy, running up to greet the old man. "Inari! How're you doing?"

The boy then turned his attention to the shinobi gathered in the house. "Who're they?"

"They're the shinobi I hired to help out," said Tazuna, introducing the shinobi to his family, "everyone, this lovely woman is my daughter Tsunami. And this little boy is my grandson Inari."

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Yamato."

"Uchiha Setsuka…"

"…and Uchiha Setsuna."

"I'm Haruno Sakura."

"Uzumaki Naruto, at your service!"

"Baihe Meilan…the man on the couch is Hatake Kakashi."

"And I'm Sarutobi Konohamaru."

"What the hell are you all doing here?" asked Inari, with a snarl of hatred on his features, "Don't you know you're just going to die around here? Get the hell out of here while you can!"

Before anyone could say a word of shock at what he'd just said, Inari ran up to his room. There was something in that look that Naruto did not like; he chased Inari up the stairs with Konohamaru, and was about to burst into his room when he heard sobbing coming out from it. "Should we go in there boss?" asked Konohamaru in a low whisper, suddenly feeling bad for the boy.

"Give him a bit of time," Naruto whispered back, "besides, we need to check back up on Kakashi-san."

With a nod of assent from Konohamaru, the two boys silently went back downstairs. It was then that they saw Kakashi stirring on the couch that they momentarily forgot their bout of depression. "W-w-where am I?"

"Easy there, Senpai," warned Yamato, "you're still weak from chakra exhaustion. You're in the client's house right now. You remember anything?"

"Yeah, I remember the ANBU that carried Zabuza's body off," he groggily said, thinking back to everything that happened. "There was something wrong about her that I couldn't place."

"Well, we were all worried that you wouldn't make it." As he looked on at Kakashi's face, Yamato could not help but wonder what his senpai was thinking of. "Something on your mind?"

It took a few minutes, but Kakashi brought his hand up to face-palm himself. "Idiot! I should've known better! I should've seen something wrong when that ANBU carted off Zabuza's body!"

Upon realizing where his senpai was going with that train of thought, Yamato's eyes had widened in realization. "You don't mean…"

"…oh yeah, I think it's very likely we'll be having a rematch with Zabuza real soon."

"Uh, don't you think you're over-thinking things?" asked Tazuna. If this was a joke, then he wasn't finding it funny.

"Tazuna-san is right," chipped in Sakura, "we all saw Zabuza die before we took you away."

"Yes, we all did," replied Kakashi, "but there were several problems with what we've seen. First of which being that the ANBU used senbon to kill Zabuza…it's very difficult to use senbon to kill a target unless you are as well-versed in medical science and thus know how to do so. The other problem is that if an ANBU needs to bring back proof of a kill, then the head is all that's needed as the body has to be burned to prevent enemy shinobi from learning jutsu from the corpse. You add all those up, and the likelihood of Zabuza's return seems a lot more believable─and this is especially if you factor in that the Hunter-nin is actually his accomplice."

"That won't matter," said Naruto, with an excited look on his face, "he can come on over as often as he likes. We'll stop him no matter how many times we have to do it!"

As Kakashi heard this from Naruto, he could not help but be proud for the boy's enthusiasm. His only regret was that he was not the boy's teacher. "I really do hope that's all it'll take. But judging from the amount of damage I took, Zabuza and I will probably need a week to recover. In that time, I intend to get you all ready for the battle to come; right now though, I need some sleep. We'll assign guard shifts tomorrow."

…

_**A/N: **_

_**Kurogane7: I wonder how many gamers caught the first minor cross in this story. That, and I'm wondering what Monster Hunter creature Naruto should fight in the future for new weapons…and so far, I'm considering having him deal with a Deviljho in the future.**_

_**UnitedOsprey1991: Hey there. UO1991 here. I may not have contributed much this time but I can assure you I am still helping Kurogane-san out**_

_**Soleneus in the fic: Yo. Just being a grammar Nazi, as usual. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and you should also totally check me out! But review this fic first, would you kindly? Stay Awesome.**_

…

_**Vocabulary**_

_**Haori─this is a light jacket worn over a kimono; something like the white coats worn by the Shinigami captains of the Gotei 13 from "Bleach".**_

_**Shinsengumi─unlike what you may think, they really did exist. They served as the shogunate's police force as the Imperialists started coming to power. People see them as heroic, but historians consider them a glorified murder-squad**_

_**Wakizashi─a short sword usually with a 2ft blade, normally used for committing seppuku, but also a usable weapon for indoors fighting.**_

_**Yuki-onna─a legendary Japanese monster that takes the form of a strikingly beautiful woman that leads men lost in blizzards to their deaths. **_

_**Saika Clan─based on an actual faction from the Sengoku Basara era; they are actually Japan's first all-rifleman army, and they are led by a man by the name of Saika Magoichi (he's also known as 'Suzuki Magoichi').**_

…

_**Cameos/References**_

_**(Missed in previous chapters)**_

_**Dr. Hazama─if people are unaware, then Dr. Hazama is a character from Osamu Tezuka's "Black Jack" series, as Hazama Kurō is his real name**_

_**Dr. Kiriko─this is an actual character from Osamu Tezuka's "Black Jack" series; he doesn't do forensic anthropology, but he does perform euthanasia**_

_**Udō Jin-e─also known as 'Kurogasa' from "Rurouni Kenshin"**_

_**Saitō Hajime─was a real person, but this is the "Rurouni Kenshin" version**_

_**Zatoichi─probably Japan's answer to James Bond; he's a blind masseur that happens to be both a Yakuza and a swordmaster that travels around killing other Yakuza and corrupt government officials.**_

_**Yojimbo─one of the movies Naruto rather liked starring the legendary Toshiro Mifune.**_

_**(Updated)**_

_**Monster Hunter─The Saika clan makes Monster Hunter bowguns in addition to bullet-based firearms, and I also thought; since Naruto World doesn't say much about fauna in the wilderness overly much, why not bring in Monster Hunter creatures too?**_


	8. Building Steam

_**A/N: Wow, that was fast…hopefully this chapter is up to standard at the very least. For this, I will thank UnitedOsprey1991 for his contribution. In any case, I have a new poll up...this one will be easier, as I will allow five choices. For those of you who don't follow Monster Hunter, I have set up the links to each of the choices. In any case, do read and review, would you kindly?**_

…

{Play: "Battle Stations" by Masashi Hamauzu, from "Musashiden II: Samurai Legend"}

[Unknown location…]

Fire. Warmth. Light. Those were among the things that she missed dearly after being sealed away the first time. Granted, it was warmth coming from the fires of a forge and a foundry, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

As dim as it was, the glow of the surrounding area showed that she had the tall, well-proportioned body of a woman just shy of her thirties that trained and exercised regularly for battle, and had a bustline that was generous enough without being so big as to hinder her fighting capability. Her vulpine features spoke volumes of her regal and savage nature; in short, she looked like a fearsome warrior-queen that was capable of both frightening and seducing men and women at the same time. And while the ambient orange glow of the flames seemed to subtly mask it, her dark bronze skin had a subtle hint of red that would allow her to pass off as a Kaminari no Kuni native, her waist-length hair had a warm orange tone to it, and her piercing red eyes were the secret to her allure.

The entire area around her was built by Naruto-kun after days…weeks…months, even of meditation and hard training. Well, meditation, hard training, and a small pointer or two from her. She remembered the first time he accidentally happened across her in his meditation; the only reason why he'd been unable to see her until then was because the curse was creating a sort of jamming signal that made it such that they couldn't so much as see each other. The addition of the regulator in his shackles changed all that, clearing up the signal so that they could communicate by effectively silencing the voice of the other tenant in his body.

For the first time since his birth, the two of them met. It was no surprise then that Naruto had a lot of questions to ask; among them being who she was, and what she was doing here. And so she talked, and revealed to him quite a few things about herself. Like her name was Kurama, the Kyūbi no Yoko, that she'd been sealed away into him on the day of his birth by the Yondaime Hokage, and the fact he was not the first; and she'd been watching him grow up since the day she was sealed into him.

With every question he had for her, Kurama answered back as tactfully as she could. Torturous as her imprisonment was, she supposed that she wound up a better person for it. After that however, their relationship had a rocky start for the first month or two─an argument here, a fight there; all in all, it was a very tough couple of months. It was very likely that their mutual stubbornness was what brought on this first wave of what she assumed were the seeds of a lovers' spat…not that Kurama would know, because aside from the familial love she had for her brothers, sisters, and her father, Kurama had never fallen head-over-heels in love with anyone. '_Although I'm pretty sure I made a lot of people fall in love for me!'_ she thought to herself with a giggle, remembering all the one-night stands she'd had up until her imprisonment.

Eventually though, he trusted her enough to take her advice on how to build the smithy she now stood in. The foundry was the very first thing that was built; magnificent thing it was, with solid brick foundations that served to smelt his chakra to make metal ingots that, even at their lowest quality, could best (if not match) even the best-quality carbon steels of today. Next came the forge, which (like the foundry) was fueled by the fire of his soul; Naruto's will was solidified into a solid block of steel and then shaped into an anvil; his patience was turned into the water that filled the quenching tub; their fabrication of parts to add to the smithy had continued until finally their little blade factory was finished, complete with all the tools that he used to make the arsenal of custom-made swords he'd been accumulating over the past year. The duds, of course, were thrown back into the foundry to make more ingots.

As she looked on at the scenery before her, Kurama could not help but feel a smug sense of satisfaction, as well as a sense of nostalgia. She remembered the joy of building her first smithy as well; granted, she'd gradually added more tools to make her blades over the years, but that still applied. Unfortunately, that adorable idiot Minato had to seal her Yin chakra within himself before he died. Ah well, what's done is done, no use crying over sour grapes…even though said sour grapes was her ability to make swords out of elements such as fire and ice. Besides, she was already plenty strong as it were; she may no longer have access to her other, more advanced skills, but she still had her swordplay and raw physical power to fall back on.

Seeing as she had nothing else to do, Kurama simply reclined on the floor while Naruto-kun did whatever it was that he liked with that Sarutobi boy. Since this workshop was built by Naruto-kun, she knew full well she couldn't touch anything; it was a security feature that was subconsciously built into each blacksmith to stop other people from using their tools. In this case, it was a seal that heated up anything in the smithy that she touched without permission and burning her hands. "Ah well, what can you do?" she asked herself in boredom, "Just come back soon, Naruto-kun. I don't want to go through another long period of boredom."

…

[Nami no Kuni─the next day…]

"You can't be serious!" Yamato had very good reason to say this…sometimes, his senpai infuriated him to no end. Were it not for the fact that Kakashi was currently in crutches, he would've hung his fellow jōnin upside down by the ankles, and made him watch as he took a slow-burning fuel, soaked his precious "Icha-Icha Paradise" novel in it, and then used a match to light it right in front of his eyes. And given how he'd just proven Zabuza's point in the lax training of Konoha shinobi, he would've just killed him here and now.

"I didn't think they were ready for it, so I decided to wait until they grew up as a team."

"Senpai, growing up as a team should not be a deciding factor for teaching them the tree-climbing technique! Hell, when I started teaching Naruto more seriously, I had him do the tree-walking exercise!"

"Well you've been giving him personal training!" Kakashi yelled. A sigh was all that was needed for Kakashi to show his exasperation at the situation. "Look, can we argue about my training methods later? My team still needs this!"

Yamato gave his own sigh at the situation. This training was getting them nowhere; he'd already had enough trouble leading up to the morning. Before everyone went to bed, they were witness to the light sounds of Meilan and Naruto massaging each other. Now don't get him wrong, Yamato was thankful that Naruto and Meilan had gotten a lot better with their massage techniques since they left the Baihe Village; heavens forbid, whenever they worked together to massage him, it took years of life off his shoulders. When they massaged each other however, that was a totally different story…they thought they were being quiet (which they sort of tried to be) but the blissful sounds he heard from the next wall over seemed to remind him that he was lacking love in his life.

His day was made even worse when both Setsuka and Setsuna walked in on Naruto and Meilan during their daily stretching session. The fight he'd heard through the walls started with something like 'it's just an arm stretch' by Meilan, then the twins accusing Naruto of being a perverted masochist for letting a girl step on him while pulling on his arm, and Naruto fighting back by defending Meilan and the stretching technique they've been taught. It was way too troublesome for him to think about.

Now? Now Naruto was sitting back with his attention on a short branch in one hand, and his curved kunai shaving on it in the other. He didn't need to listen in after all, because he'd already done this training...and surprisingly, Meilan was able to as well. If Yamato didn't know any better, he'd say that Naruto was re-enacting the moments that led up to the fateful duel Miyamoto Musashi had with Sasaki Kojiro. Upon thinking of that name in his head, Yamato could only shiver as a cold feeling shot up his spine. The reason for this was because Miyamoto Musashi was a rōnin whose legend was such that he terrified shinobi and kunoichi alike long after he died of cancer many years ago. It was rumored that he developed the Samurai Saber Technique to counter shinobi, especially when they attacked in large numbers.

But going back to the present, Naruto was shaving away at the branch with an impatient Konohamaru wondering exactly what it was he was doing. "I thought you were going to show me something."

"Pipe down! I'm making something." he finally said, before pausing to inspect his work. Yamato eyeballed it as an improvised bokken a little longer than a regular wakizashi. This was the second one, as he made the first one using a wooden boat oar Tazuna no longer had any use for and was somewhere in between a wakizashi and a katana. "Okay then, here's the deal," he began, handing Konohamaru the longer bokken, "we're going to spar for a bit. How you fight is going to tell me what to do when training you."

"You're kidding!" jeered a skeptical Konohamaru, "We're not samurai, so what the hell are we doing with bokken?"

"Funny, last I heard, there are shinobi who use swords too," said Naruto, "unless you want to try fighting me barehanded? Besides, this is just a trial match...there's a reason why I made that stick I gave you longer; it's to see what sort of fighter you are. If I know what kind of fighter you are, then that gives me an idea of how to train you. So c'mon, use whatever weapon you want and show me what you got. Oh yeah, and another more thing before we start."

"What?" asked Konohamaru.

"Firstly, you don't tell your grandpa about this training," began Naruto, holding the shorter stick in his right hand, "I'm pretty sure he's not going to like the way that you're going to be trained under me. And secondly…" as he said this, he tossed the shorter bokken into the air and caught it in his left hand. "I'm going to use my left hand."

{Play: "Maguro" from "Samurai Shodown"}

Smirking at what he was being told, Konohamaru felt confident. He'd teach this guy a thing or two about fighting, and he won't even need a stick to do so! He threw the long staff away, and ran at Naruto hoping to run up, knock him down somehow, then punch him in the face. Unfortunately, that would prove to be a no-sell, as Naruto had one answer to that course of action: he performed a leg-sweep that caused Konohamaru to trip and fall with his face eating the lawn. "I hope you realize that if you manage to land a hit on me, I'll be impressed enough to teach you something cool."

Oh, now that was motivation enough for him. Plus, while he didn't want to admit it, Konohamaru really didn't want to look stupid in front of the boss' pretty girlfriend. He had to find a way to win, and to make him take him more seriously. If only he could…wait a minute, he had a way to make him take him more seriously! It was then that he picked up the long stick and tried to remember stuff he'd seen his grandpa do, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Naruto as he slipped into a fighting stance. "Bojutsu?"

Konohamaru smirked. "My Grandpa taught me the basics of the Bo staff. Said it ran in our family, and the fact we have monkey summons all helps us learn these."

Hearing this, Naruto's interest was piqued. "Bet you can't land a hit on me!"

Now, it was on. Konohamaru charged in with his improvised bo, starting off with a few swipes of his staff in an attempt to catch Naruto off-guard. Naruto on the other hand, was parrying away the strikes quite efficiently...watching the staff carefully as he knocked one side away before letting off the sound of 'k-tok' as he parried each blow quickly without taking his eyes off his opponent.

Tired of seeing no results, Konohamaru moved in with a sweep of the staff in an attempt to trip up the boss, but Naruto was having none of it. He simply hopped into the air for a bit before shifting his weight down on the staff, making Konohamaru drop it before driving the shorter stick down on his head…not enough to injure the boy, but enough to stun him for a few seconds before following up with an upwards sweep aimed at his legs that got Konohamaru landing on his back. "Didn't your grandpa teach you about the line of center? How you're supposed to be defending it?" chided Naruto, rolling the staff onto his foot before kicking it into his hand as Konohamaru sat up to nurse the area where his head met the shorter stick, "I think that's enough for today. You have pretty good foundations, but you still need to spend time on your footwork."

"Don't think this is over!" said Konohamaru, "I'll land a hit on you yet!"

"Not with your footwork you aren't," said Naruto, "I'll tell you what…why don't I show you a very basic footwork exercise?"

"This is stupid! What the hell are you harping at me about footwork for? It's not like I'm going out dancing!"

"That's where you're wrong," pointed out Naruto, "I've had to learn the hard way that bad footwork is a real surefire way to get yourself killed. Took me a lot of dancing lessons to learn it, but I managed to learn the lesson. Good footwork helps you to defend your line of center by letting you dodge attacks without getting too badly hurt. If you lose your line of center, then you're not dead; you're gonna look stupid first, _**then**_ you're gonna die looking stupid. Trust me, it's very important to learn footwork."

He soon saw that this was going nowhere. Konohamaru let out a sigh as he bit the bullet. "What are those steps?"

…

{Play: "Nine-tailed Demon Fox" by Toshiro Masuda from "Naruto"}

[Elsewhere…]

One could feel the resentment and the anger in the vicinity as Zabuza lay in the bed, being attended to by Haku as she went about making medicines. She could feel that he was getting even more agitated, and she could see why: her training in chakra detection had told her that Gato was coming.

The door was opened, and in walked Gato and his two yōjinbo bodyguards. Somehow, Haku felt that there was a smug sense of satisfaction under that angry expression written across his face. "Zabuza, what the hell am I paying you for?!" he almost shouted, "You're supposed to be killing the bridge-builder, not licking your wounds!"

It was obvious to Haku that he was seriously not in the mood to talk. As it stood, Gato was treading on thin ice…not just with Zabuza-sama, but with her. Still, she was able to keep a civil tongue and face as she spoke. "I understand your concerns. I've been scouting them and also making sure that Zabuza gets back to fighting strength. It is not easy having to do things on your own, something you obviously don't know."

Gato soon turned his attention to Haku. "Speak when spoken to, girly! Or else I'll take you to one of my brothels!" Once he was done with speaking to Haku, he turned his attention back to Zabuza, moving to poke him with his cane. "As for you, you'd better...AGH!"

Both his sentence and the trajectory of his cane had come to a halt as he felt a vice-grip holding onto the arm gripping the cane. He then turned to see that Haku had a furious glare on her face as she gripped onto his forearm with one hand. "Don't you dare touch Zabuza-sama," she hissed, as Gato screamed in pain as his bones cracked under the pressure of her hold, "we'll get the job done. Try to touch him again, and I will forgo the contract just to kill you myself."

Just as the two yōjinbo had moved to draw their swords, they found that their katana had been pulled out of their grips and the tips of their blades held in such a manner that a single push backwards would've stabbed through their larynxes, jugular veins, and a part of the spine.

"You really don't want to push me," she growled, "I'm in a foul mood right now."

The two yōjinbo gulped and backed off just as Haku re-sheathed their swords before picking both up by the scruff of their collars, and throwing them at Gato. Seeing their opportunity to get the hell out of dodge, the two mercenaries picked their boss up by the armpits, and made a run for it. "I won't forget this! You only have one more shot! Fail me again, and I'll really make you suffer!" shouted Gato in pain, "Especially you, girlie! I'll get you for this!"

Seeing that their employer had left the area, Haku let out a relieved sigh. "You really didn't have to do that," said Zabuza, "I may be bedridden, but I'm still more than able to castrate him if I had to."

Haku knew what he meant; Zabuza always kept a kunai on him at all times.

"I know Zabuza-sama," she said, with her warm grin returning, "I hope you realize its hard to play the role of obedient servant when you care so much about me like you do."

"Shut-up!" snapped Zabuza, turning his gaze back to the ceiling, "Just get me better so that we can earn enough money to get the hell out of here. It's bad enough that I have to work for that asshat, but I don't want to ever see that village again in the state that it's in."

Haku giggled and patted Zabuza on the shoulder. "Of course Zabuza-sama. I'll return soon."

Once she'd said her piece to her master, Haku went to the partition. She needed a disguise if she wanted to pick the necessary ingredients in peace. The second she walked out of the partition, she was seen in a pink kimono with sakura petals embroidered on the tail that went midway down her thighs. Haku really hated wearing the bandages whenever she slipped out of her other disguise, but she needed it to hide her true identity. Otherwise someone could make advances on her, or worse capture her and sell her to the highest bidder.

She shivered at that thought; Haku had heard the horror stories of some of the kunoichi that rebelled against the Mizukage being kidnapped and never being seen again. It was something she honestly didn't want to know about. Either way, Zabuza-sama was right, they needed to get out of here soon if things were to change in Kirigakure.

…

{Play: "Cursed Shinshū Fields" by Mika Matsuura from "Okami Piano Collection"}

[Nami no Kuni streets─two hours later…]

Naruto was in town looking for something for dinner for Tsunami. He'd taken Konohamaru with him to follow Sakura as a way to take a break from him trying to master the steps to improve upon his footwork. Now, Naruto was regretting that decision because he was hit with the full force of the gravity of the situation in town. Windows broken in, doors being boarded shut, buildings being condemned, overall not a pleasant sight. The large number of homeless people loafing around listlessly in the streets, as well as digging desperately through garbage did not make the scene any prettier.

In place of the six wakizashi he'd sealed away, Naruto had a single katana hanging at the top rack and a wakizashi in the middle on his left side. Its sheath had an inlaid orange lacquer finish with a zig-zagging rectangular pattern wrapping seamlessly and elegantly around its surface. It had brass fittings with chrysanthemum motifs stamped into them, and its grip was wrapped in black leather. Overall, the sword was around five feet long including the grip. He took this sword out primarily to keep in practice with a standard-sized katana, and to avoid having all of his wakizashi stolen. As a Weapon Master, he had to be familiar with all his weapons, and so he made it a point to switch his main weapons every day to ensure the did not specialize in any one of them, but to master them all as best he could.

"Depressing, isn't it?" asked Tsunami, referring to the scene before the children sent to escort her. Sakura was originally going to be assigned to this errand alone to make sure that the client's daughter went to get groceries at the market without incident, especially since she'd managed to finish the tree-walking exercise first (to which the twins seemed to glare evilly at her for). But her behavior as a fangirl would have jeopardized the mission due to it making her the weakest member of Team Seven…and so as backup, Naruto came with. Konohamaru decided to follow just to take a break from the dizzying steps he had to do in order to keep up with his new sensei.

"No kidding," answered Naruto, feeling the atmosphere of the town as he walked down the streets, "it's like this place just up and died."

"That's what we've had to go through for quite some time now," added Tsunami, nodding in agreement, "ever since Gato's come here, our town's turned into one huge slum district. That's why I support my father as best I can…he's the only hope we have."

Sakura was about to say something when her words were caught in her throat. She soon turned around the slug a man across the face, the word she used making it clear what she thought of him, as well as what he likely did: "PERVERT!" Watching as the man ran away like a dog with his tail between his legs. "The nerve! This town's suffering, and he still has the balls to grope little girls on the ass!"

While Konohamaru was a self-professed closet pervert (an addiction that he seemed to have acquired a taste for after finding his grandpa's hidden porn stash), Naruto was a gentleman; well, at least as much as he could with Meilan for a training partner. Later on in their training, they had seen each other naked numerous times, and from their exercises and massage sessions he could tell that she was a very beautiful girl that would develop quite well. Neither boy would have had the guts that that idiot had to grope any girl by the ass. "Some people snapped after the economic collapse that happened around here," explained Tsunami, opening the door as they finally made it to the market, "with all the hooligans that Gato brings to this village, it won't be long until it becomes a wretched hive of scum and villainy."

As the four of them went into the grocery store, it was even clearer to the Konoha natives that the situation was a lot worse: bread for 60 ryo? Bottled water for 80? Milk for 100? And to say nothing of the scarcity of things on the shelves. "This is horrible. Why would anyone do this to a community?" asked a horror-struck Sakura.

"Sadly, there are places that are as bad if not worse than this" added Naruto, "If I recall, Tanzaku City is already a den of thieves with all the gamblers running amok in town…and that's just on the surface."

"What could be worse than thieves?" Konohamaru said, dreading the answer.

Naruto stopped before turning to Konohamaru. "I am talking about slavers and black market dealers. I've heard horror stories of many a kunoichi that have been captured and sold like cattle. Most were fangirls or those who didn't take their training seriously, and thus were easy prey." To that, Sakura had a bit of a shiver. "In the best case scenario, they end up as indentured call girls. Worse case…they end up stuck in prostitution due to being on a forced drug addiction. Many with their minds shattered beyond recognition."

"And what about the black market dealers?" asked Sakura.

"Now those guys, they're a little trickier," answered Naruto, "on the one hand, depending on their product, they collaborate with slavers very closely; and on the other, they also tend to sell things cheaper than on official markets with a questionable level of reliability and legality. Worst case with them? You buy an item from a black market dealer for a good price only to have an ANBU slitting your throat in your sleep. Either way, it's not worth it to buy from black market dealers."

Not wishing to hear anymore horror stories in the underworld, Sakura decided to follow Tsunami to help out with buying the stuff for dinner, and hopefully the week to come. Just as Sakura had felt a tug on the hem of her dress, she was about to pummel the person responsible when she turned around and saw a little boy younger than the Hokage's grandson.

"Do you have any food?" He asked timidly, his eyes almost begging.

Before Sakura could respond, Naruto walked towards them and handed him a rolled-up 500-ryo bill which he closed in the boy's hand. "Don't show it to anyone," he whispered, "Gato's got bad guys running around."

At this moment, Sakura also handed the boy a few of her ration bars. "This should also last you for a bit as long as you eat it slowly."

Surprised by this act by two strangers, the boy nodded graciously, and ran off.

Konohamaru looked at Naruto who shook his head to silently tell him not to say anything. "I hope this tells you that some people have it worse off than you. If I don't get anything else through your head while we're here, I hope this message does."

It would not be until a good fifteen minutes until Tsunami was done with her shopping that the four of them left the market. However, the scene that they were witness to was unexpected: being held and shaken around by his ankles by three adult men was the little boy that both Sakura and Naruto had helped not too long ago. The three men took enjoyment out of tormenting the boy that Naruto decided to handle the situation.

"Hey, dumbasses!" he called out, getting the attention of all three of the thugs bullying the little boy, "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

The three men walked towards Naruto, sneering at him as he decided to cross his arms. "Well, well, look what we've got here boys! Someone being a hero." The speaker was a scraggly looking man with a stubble. Under his splotchy and dirty kimono, Naruto could see the tattoos of fish and lotus blossoms on his body, marking him as a Yakuza; he also carried a dosu blade at his waist that all Yakuza were known to wield.

The second man he saw was the one dangling the little boy around until he'd let him go before shouldering the large, wooden mallet. He was easily the tallest of the bunch, with a lantern jaw, gangly limbs, a topknot on his head, and slow-looking eyes. It was obvious that this guy was more than eager to put an upstart in his place. "Last I checked, Gato made sure heroes didn't last too long around here."

The third of the thugs was of a stocky build with a pair of knives holstered at his side and a naginata in hand. He looked ready to gut his victim at any moment now, and his extravagant clothing and makeup had made him look like one of those kabuki ronin shown in ancient paintings. The red-dyed hair he had only made his image as a kabuki actor even more pronounced. "Maybe we should teach this kid a lesson, eh Shinogi?"

"Well aren't you cute?" asked a sneering Naruto, mocking the three mercenaries, "You think you're so tough, picking on little kids. Bet you haven't even killed a lot of people."

"Watch yourself, brat! We're all pretty big where we're from!" said the Yakuza named Shinogi, "I used to be from Kaminari no Kuni until I killed my own boss!"

"I aided in a lot of bank robberies!" chimed in Lantern-Jaw, "I've killed shinobi before, and I'll kill even more until I kill every last shinobi in Konoha for what the Kīroi Senkō did to my people in Iwagakure!"

The Kabuki simply grunted. "I used to sodomize little assholes like yours back in prison! I'll get killed if I'm caught by the Shinsengumi again!"

"So nobody's gonna cry when I kill you?"

There was a grunt of disbelief when the thugs heard that. "That runt's all talk! I'll bet that katana at his side's just for show!"

Naruto simply chuckled a bit. "Only death cures fools."

{Play: "Rebellion" by Daisuke Ishiwatari from "Blazblue"}

Deciding not to take that kind of talk from a boy, the three mercenaries decided to move in, roaring in anger for the attack. Shinogi charged in with his dosu blade drawn and ready for a downwards cut, Lantern-Jaw had his mallet held overhead to smash into him, and Kabuki was ready to impale him with his naginata.

The next moments were rather fast, but Naruto had immediately begun his counterattack; starting with Shinogi, who found his dosu blade cut in half with a single upwards iai draw by Naruto who then stepped forward as he brought the blade back down to slice him downwards from his clavicle and scapula, down to the upper part of his ribs, through the sternum and his spine, and then cutting past the rest of the ribs. That single downwards cut was forceful enough to have chopped the Yakuza in half in one pass.

Lantern-Jaw recovered from his missed swing and attempted to bash Naruto in the head with a sideways swipe. Naruto ducked under the head of the hammer before he jabbed his blade into the soft tissue just underneath the sternum to penetrate the abdominis rectus muscle and forcing the katana down to cut through his intestines, through his groin, and causing the blade of the katana to exit between the man's legs. Naruto lopped off Lantern-Jaw's head with a single downwards slash to the neck just as he doubled over on his knees in pain.

The final attacker was Kabuki, who swung his naginata down in an attempt to bifurcate Naruto, only to watch as he sidestepped the attack, kicked him in the shins while switching to a reverse-grip on his katana, and brought the blade upwards to slice off his forearms. Kabuki was kneeling on the ground crying in pain as Naruto performed chiburi to flip the blood off his blade re-sheathing it in noto. Naruto then turned his attention to a random civilian watching the whole thing with his jaw hanging. "Tell the cooper to make two coffins," he said, before checking back on his handiwork, "scratch that, better make it three."

As he walked on back to the group he was assigned to guard, Naruto found he was greeted by an awestruck trio. "What? Those guys deserved it. Plus, they were likely on Gato's payroll."

"I know," said Konohamaru, finally finding it in himself to speak, "it's just that that was awesome! Where'd you learn to do something like that?"

"Three years on the road." said Naruto wearily.

Before long, the four of them had made a silent trip back to the household. Somehow, Naruto felt that his defense of the young boy would have consequences later on if the glares of the people were any indication. Well, it was only the men that did so, but he could tell that his standing up to those thugs would come at a price.

…

[The Bridge─half an hour later…]

It was not too much trouble, although the occasional attack on the construction workers on the bridge was the reason Meilan was posted on guard duty with Tazuna. To make sure the bridge was completed on schedule, she had to make sure that any suspicious individuals were stomped out of the premises.

So far, she made quite few men look stupid as she tossed their asses off the incomplete end of the bridge and into the river that led back to the ocean. With any luck, those scumbags would be eaten by a shark. She'd even hoped that a Leviathan would do them in: Meilan had heard that Ludroths often came to shore to hunt before going back to the ocean; and the rarer Lagiacrus that ate them sometimes spawned and sunbathed in these parts, with their eggs hatching around this time of year.

Meilan watched as one of the workers walked up to Tazuna. "I'm sorry Tazuna, but I can't keep doing this. I've got a family. If I keep working on this then I'll be dead; or worse, end up like Kaiza."

It was clear in her expression that Meilan was furious at this man. Tazuna on the other hand, scoffed. "I don't care if I have to work on this alone, this bridge will be completed. Everyone pack up! We are done for today!" As all the workers began to pack up for the day, Tazuna then turned to the worker with cold anger in his features. "As for you, I hope you realize real soon how much this bridge actually means for the village; no, for our people! If you wanna lie down, and be Gato's bitch, then be my guest…let him walk on over to your house and make you watch as he joins his thugs in gang-raping your family to death for all I care! But I want you to know this: I'm disappointed in you; your father would be disappointed in you; and all your ancestors are turning in your grave for your cowardice! And don't bother coming back to work tomorrow; you are officially fired!"

Walking with his bodyguard, Tazuna could only sigh in disappointment as he left the construction worker stunned to silence. "Selfish bastard," he muttered under his breath, "I'm pretty sure his ancestors would do more than roll in their grave when they learn he bailed on me using his family as an excuse to save his own skin."

"Does this happen often?" asked Meilan, sympathetic to the man's situation.

"Not too often, but it's always ruined my day whenever it does." Tazuna said, "I've lost almost twenty workers this way so far. And while I do understand that Gato has put the fear in all of us, that's no excuse for using your family to hide your own cowardice. At this rate, it won't be because of Gato that this bridge won't be finished…it'll be because of those cowardly assholes letting him win!"

On that note, Meilan agreed with Tazuna. They needed a hero to look up to…someone to inspire them to continue fighting. "So who was Kaiza?"

That one sentence seemed to strike a note with Tazuna. His answer was simple. "He was a great man that shouldn't have died."

The walk back to Tazuna's house was silent from that point on. Whatever happened to Kaiza, Meilan knew that it was a very painful subject. She'll be sure to ask for more details later.

…

[Tazuna's House─two hours later…]

The group had settled in for dinner with as much as Tsunami could provide with the way the village had been turned into a slum. Tonight's special? Leftover fish stew that was made from the tuna that swam in the waters nearby the island. The fish had to be caught in secret, as fishing was severely limited; if the larger ocean monsters like a full-grown Lagiacrus didn't kill the fishermen in the open ocean, then Gato's privateers would've done the job just fine.

It was just as well that this dinner was done; and just on time too. Setsuka and Setsuna had just gotten back from doing the tree-walking exercise, and were more than hungry after finally getting the lesson down; Naruto was done training Konohamaru for the day (with Kakashi and Yamato's supervision), and the latter of the two had finally started to move a little more gracefully now that he understood footwork; and Meilan and Tazuna had just returned from the shift with the bridge. This meal was probably the highest point of the night.

The silence of the meal was broken by a slam at the table. This was from Inari. "Why?" He asked directing his question at the ninja. "Why what?" Naruto asked.

"Why do you try so hard for a country that isn't even yours?" Inari asked, still furious..

"Its our mission, well most of our missions to protect your grandfather. When we saw the suffering of your village we resolved to stay until this bridge is complete and Gato is taken down."

"Shut up! Don't you know heroes like you get killed!?"

"Like your father?" Naruto said stopping Inari in his tracks, "I saw the picture and Tsunami explained it to us. He died protecting you and this village. He showed what he could do with his two hands am I right? It seems this village lost that courage when he died. He would be sad to see his adopted village going down like this without so much as a fight."

"SHUT UP! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SUFFERING! I bet you all live in a fancy house and have all your needs taken care of! You're nothing more than a younger Gato!"

Wrong words, and a handful at the table knew it, because Naruto looked at Inari with a harsh glare. The boy was instantly silenced when he felt the eyes penetrating him with some sort of laser beam. "I don't know about suffering?" He chuckled darkly. "Inari, you have a grandfather, a mother and had more or less a father figure right? I had none of those. My parents were killed when I was born, my grandfather figure was too busy to look after me , and I had to deal with a lot of cold glares back where I'm from!"

"And it gets worse…" as he said this, he took off his haori, revealing a white arm that had a pair of shackles on it. It was here that Naruto pulled off the glove he wore, and revealed that there were claw-tipped fingers underneath. "I was nine years old and in the wrong place at the wrong time when someone decided to kill me. I was nine fucking years old when I was stabbed in the heart! In all honesty, I should've been dead three years ago, but something worse happened; a curse in my blood had awakened, and gave me this arm. And now I have to deal with a curse that will turn me into a bloodthirsty monster and tears me apart if I don't wear these shackles and learn to control it. Because of this, I'm always afraid that one day I will truly lose control, and the chains won't be able to stop me as I kill everyone, even the people I love; and when that day comes, I'm afraid that I'll enjoy it."

At this point, everyone at the table had a pretty good idea as to how bad his situation was. To constantly live in fear of putting your loved ones in danger, that was truly a fate nobody would wish on another. "You're lucky, Inari. For a long time, I've always wanted a family; and I am forever grateful for Meilan's family taking me in and training me, but I always felt like I was out of place. All I ever wanted was a family to call my own. But YOU! You sit there complaining that you know suffering...you have more than I did at your age. So if you want to know suffering…I. WROTE. THE. WHOLE. DAMN. BOOK!" Naruto shouted, standing up and kicking the chair away.

Once he composed himself, Naruto let out a calming sigh. "I'm sorry Tsunami-san, but I need to blow off steam. What monsters are there to hunt in these parts, Tazuna-san?"

"Uh, there are Jaggi packs in these parts year-round," began Tazuna, still stupefied at what he'd just seen and heard before finding his confidence, "but Gato's thugs began hunting them for meat since they got here, so you'll have a harder time finding a Great Jaggi. And unfortunately, that's the _**only**_ thing I'm thanking him for, because those things were an invasive species that have always been trouble in large numbers."

"Thanks." With that said, Naruto left the door...

Sakura looked at her sensei. "Is what Naruto said true sensei?"

Kakashi sighed. "That was a sugared down version. Many civilians and ninja had no love for him. I was one of his guardians, and the picture wasn't pretty."

Setsuka and Setsuna looked out the door. "Naruto-kun." They intoned sadly.

Meilan looked at the twins with an understanding expression in her eyes. "I can tell you both care for him. I won't keep you from getting to know him, but please be kind."

Setsuka looked at Meilan. "We tried to be his friend before he left. We just wanted to be his friend."

Setsuna picked up where her sister left off. "But now we want to help defeat his loneliness. If we have to share him, then we can be happy just knowing he cares for us."

"If only to make his suffering of the Curse of Kazan more bearable." Setsuka finished.

Meilan sighed. She knew that as the last member of at least two clans, Naruto was legally allowed by shinobi law take multiple spouses. It hurt her that she could not be truthful of her feelings. Training together, they had grown up as siblings…although she felt that the two of them were getting too close for even that. Perhaps this was why in the old days, the Baihe training regimen was only administered to those who were in arranged marriages so that they could continue to train each other until death do them part.

She also understood that when Naruto wanted to blow steam on a hunt, he intended to do so alone.

…

[Nami no Kuni Wilderness─the next morning…]

The mist had set in with the heat of the sun evaporating the dew on the leaves. This was just the way that Haku liked it…quiet, with birds chirping and the wind blowing through the leaves. Overall, a very peaceful moment to be picking herbs for her mission…that is, until she heard the sound of barking out in the distance, as well as the sound of a heavy blade swinging around before cutting into flesh.

{Play: "Heavy Violence" by Toshiro Masuda, from "Naruto"}

Curious as to what it was that she was hearing, Haku decided to run until she saw herself witnessing a sight she'd never thought she'd see in all her life: there he was, the boy that fought Zabuza with that strange, transforming, axe-sword machine. This time however, he had a different weapon in hand, which would best be described as a large, blue-bladed cleaver with brass fittings that had been cut into a gear motif. At the middle of the blade, near the hilt was a gear that was also attached to a knuckle guard that protected the main area of a grip long enough to be used as a short staff. Its pommel looked like the turret of a castle.

His opponent was a large, frilled reptile with barbs going down its spine like fur. It had the appearance of a raptor, and its large size had identified it as a Great Jaggi that let out the barks she'd heard earlier. From out of the bushes, the man-sized Jaggi had come to the aid of their alpha male; these all-male creatures looked like smaller versions of the Great Jaggi, without the line of fur going down their backs. It was here that she figured that the boy would have trouble; the Jaggi were known to be weak alone, but their strength in numbers could more than compensate. Fortunately for him though, the Jaggia (who were the females of the pack), stayed behind to guard the nest.

The Great Jaggi let out a series of barks, and ordered his subordinates to surround the boy. The man-sized raptors kept hissing, and snarling. Reptile or no, all Jaggi packs behave in a manner not at all different from a wolf-pack, and with the Great Jaggi holding the big stick of authority among them, their tactical capabilities increased. The boy's response was to ready his greatsword for an attack. Neither side was willing to attack just yet, and Haku felt the tension build up as both the boy and the Jaggi pack seemed to stare each other down.

All it took was a little twitch, and the entire pack moved in for the kill! It was clear that the boy was almost ignoring the Jaggi he was fighting; after all, his target was the Great Jaggi. He simply cut through the Jaggi one by one as he cleared a path towards the now-cornered alpha male of the pack. At the same time, he was keeping an eye on his flanks and blocking all the other members of the pack as they attempted to attack him from behind.

It was clear to her that that the weapon he was using was large and heavy as it were, and combined with the leverage making it more difficult to wield a blade that size, a normal person would've needed at least Zabuza-sama's level of brute physical power to be able to use it in two hands, much less one. And yet, here was this boy that aided in the defeat of her master, swinging that cleaver around in two hands to bisect a Jaggi in one strike, transition to a one-handed grip to grab another one by the back of the head with his free hand to drive it into his knee, and throw it to the ground before pulling the sword out of the ground and jabbing the pommel through the creature's eye. It was like a dance with brute strength, where he'd use the momentum of every swing of that blade to fluidly transition into the next move…it was a fighting style that required the user to have a perfect sense of timing to compensate for the slow swinging speed of the weapon, minimize on recovery time from missed swings, and to look for opportunities to end the fight with a downward bifurcation cut.

With most of the Jaggi killed, the boy simply stood his ground as he found the Great Jaggi staring him down. The barks he sent towards his underlings seemed to translate to 'this one's mine!', if the fact that the other Jaggi backing away were any indication as their alpha leaped into the fray. It was clear to the alpha male that his lower-ranked minions weren't going to cut it against this boy, who was now holding the blade at the ready, and staring back. The Great Jaggi would enjoy this kill, and this was the moment that the boy was waiting for.

The next moment would be decisive, and the Great Jaggi circled the boy, snapping his jaws at him in an attempt to intimidate him. When it was clear that his opponent would not budge, the Great Jaggi decided to initiate the attack, opening the fight with a quick snap of the jaws, only for the boy to duck under the bite, tackle the Great Jaggi, and land a downwards cut that the giant reptile had barely stepped back from. The Great Jaggi responded with a tail slap, until the boy countered by bringing the blade up to dismember the creature and bringing it back down to cut into the reptile once more. The Great Jaggi managed to roll away just in time to recover and stare back, seemingly hatefully at his opponent before leaping into the air in an attempt to squash this boy under his weight, and then follow through by ripping his guts out with his toe claws. The boy's response was to release his grip on the sword, reach into his sleeve to pull out three solid-black and jagged-looking bo-shuriken tipped with a green slime from a wrist holster, and fling them all into the Great Jaggi's chest before leaving his sword behind and rolling away from the monster. The Great Jaggi was barking…he was furious that the boy had even wounded him in the first place, but the boy was simply standing there, waiting for something. And just as the Great Jaggi was about to attack, three explosions were triggered on the beast's chest where each of the bo-shuriken were embedded, causing the creature to fall to the ground dead.

Seeing that their alpha male had died, the Jaggi ran off…this opponent was way too strong. Once the boy saw that he'd made quite a mess, he walked towards his massive blade, and picked it out of the ground before laying it back on the ground and taking a cloth out to clean the blade. It was clear from his panting that he was winded after the battle with the Jaggi pack, and Haku would not have any trouble killing him and leaving Zabuza-sama one less threat to deal with.

That course of action would have been implemented, had Haku not been spotted as the blonde quickly turned his head around and spotted her.

"What a pretty girl like you doing here?" he asked wiping the blood off his massive cleaver.

"Looking for herbs," she said, her blush briefly coloring her cheeks before thanking the heavens that her kimono hid her breast-bindings (she did want to have fun with him after this), "I see that you're skilled. It's generally considered suicide to be going after Jaggi packs alone."

The boy went back to cleaning his blade. "Yeah, well, I wanted to blow off some steam before heading back. Didn't think that I'd get a workout from this." He then turned to regard his handiwork from earlier: "Looks like a lot of people are going to be eating well today…hopefully, Tsunami-san knows how to cook Jaggi meat."

Haku watched him casually clean off his blade before he looked back at her. "I'm sorry, what's your name?

"I'm Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto. You?"

"Haku." She said.

"Just Haku?"

"Yes, I raised myself and I have no knowledge of my parents."

Naruto nodded and pulled out a scroll, and used it to seal away his cleaver, when he turned to Haku. "So are you picking up herbs for a friend?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm going to need help cleaning this area up," he said, pulling out another scroll, "life on the road teaches you to not be wasteful, and I'm pretty sure everyone in town could use a real meal for once. Help me out, and you can keep a Jaggi carcass to bring home for food; and in the meantime, I can help you find herbs for your friend. So what do you say? I think it's a win-win."

He was right; not only would she be able to help Zabuza-sama recover faster, but she'd be getting food to put on the table. Her answer was simple: "Okay then, I'll help you."

The whole process was slow, but thorough, taking a good hour or so to bring each carcass to the scroll before sealing it away. As they worked in silence, Haku wondered about this boy that decided to help her. He was unknowingly helping the enemy, and for that, she was chuckling inwardly at the irony…however, the way he worked at sealing each and every carcass was seemingly telling of his values.

Once the Jaggi corpse she wanted was bagged and placed on an improvised sled, the two of them began searching the area for herbs. Perhaps now was the time to break the ice. "So, Naruto, do you have anyone in your life?"

Naruto broke from his search for herbs to regard Haku with a curious look on his face. "Why do you ask?"

"Humor me for a minute. What do you have that's worth fighting for?"

As Naruto went back to the herbs, his expression deep in thought. "I have people I care for," he finally said, "I would do anything to protect them, even if I have to abandon them to protect them from myself. Were it not for them, I would've tried to kill myself a long time ago."

Hearing this answer from the boy, Haku could not help but see the similarities between her and this boy that had just got her one of the herbs she needed. Such a shame that she would probably be killing him rather soon…with the connection she felt to him, it made that task even harder. "That's good," she said, "people with someone to fight for are by far the strongest people in the world."

"Well, I do owe those people that much" he said, almost embarrassed to answer, "But what about you? Does a pretty girl like you have anyone important in their lives?"

She simply chuckled, as she finally found another herb. "My friend. He doesn't behave like it, but I know he really does care about me. I doubt he'll ever admit it, but I think it's safe to say he's like a father to me."

After having picked another herb, Haku nodded. "I think we're done here. Thank-you for your help Naruto-kun." She then turned to walk away. "And by the way, I'm a boy."

Naruto's laugh was telling. "You say that, but your voice and perfume betray you!" he said, still chuckling, "I never smelled someone using camellia oil perfume as heavily as you do, Ms. Hunter-nin!"

That last word was what caused Haku to gasp and pull out her senbon, her face twisting into a fierce snarl. "I am not going to let you harm Zabuza-sama!"

It was clear to her that he was not afraid, when Naruto chuckled. "Loyalty to a man that isn't really your father. You must really care for him, don't you Haku?"

There was no escaping this. However, seeing as Haku felt she wasn't being threatened, she lowered her guard. With no threat to his life, Naruto looked at her critically and finally broke the ice. "Why are you working for Gato? From what I've heard about him, he's probably not going to pay for your services…he's more than likely kill Zabuza, turn his head in for the bounty, and then sell you off."

Haku looked away, seemingly ashamed of what they had to resort to. "It's not like we had a choice. We are working with the Kiri Rebellion, and we need the funding badly. This was the highest-paying job we could find."

Naruto sighed. "Yes…the Civil War. I've heard of it from my sensei. How is that coming along?"

Haku looked at Naruto curiously. "It's actually going well, we managed to secure a contract with the Saika clan in addition our alliance with the elves of Isla Mistica. That's why we are on these missions to finance our war machine."

The look on Naruto's face seemed to be considering what she had just said. Perhaps he would be speaking with that 'Sayaka-chan' she'd heard him mention. "Very well. I won't stop you from helping Zabuza, but please remember what I said about Gato. I have a feeling he'll be turning on you at the drop of a hat.."

Haku nodded. "Thank you Naruto-san," she said walking away, "and I'm sorry, but the next time we meet will be as enemies."

As she walked on out of the clearing, Haku let out a sigh. She sincerely wished he would stay off the bridge; Kirigakure needed to change, and with that monster Yagura in charge, there was no doubt in her mind that there would be blood shed when the war picked up. She didn't want his blood to be mixed in with the sacrifices to bring about that change.

…

_**A/N:**_

_**Kurogane7: I wonder how many people will catch the movie reference I made here, before getting to the Cameos/References section? As usual, please give a hand to my collaborator, UnitedOsprey1991 on this story. And remember, there is a new poll up! Your opinions do matter, and you have until after Anko announces the start of the Chūnin Exams, and everyone is in the forest for the results, so do please vote, would you kindly?**_

_**UnitedOsprey1991: Hey guys UO1991 here. Hope you like this great set up chapter here. I had a bit more input this time. But I can assure you in some of the chapters you will see my mark. Especially the Chunin Exams which is around two maybe three chapters from now.**_

…

_**Vocabulary**_

_**Dosu─a short sword belonging to Yakuza**_

_**Iai─the art of drawing your blade, cutting the opponent in that one draw, and then resheathing the blade**_

_**Clavicle─the shoulder bone in the front**_

_**Scapula─the shoulder bone in the back (in other words, the shoulder blade)**_

_**Sternum─this is the bone that holds your rib cage together**_

_**Abdominis Rectus─(sometimes also called Rectus Abdominis) these are your ab muscles**_

_**Bo-shuriken─a type of shuriken that is essentially a rod-shaped throwing spike, and is normally made out of long and heavy carpentry nails; senbon needles are inspired by the bo-shuriken.**_

…

_**Cameos/References**_

_**Yojimbo─that tussle between Naruto and the three thugs was based on the scene in Yojimbo where the main character played by Toshiro Mifune kills them and asks the cooper to make two coffins before correcting himself and asking for three instead.**_


End file.
